- HUNTINGTON, New York: Before there was Band Aid or Live Aid, a We Are the World or Hands Across America, there was singer-songwriter Harry Chapin — lobbying for change in Congress, pestering an already convinced President Carter to establish a commission on world hunger, and passing the hat for donations at concerts large and small.
Chapin has been gone now nearly as long as he lived. He achieved artistic and commercial success with a string of hits in the 1970s, songs like "Cats in the Cradle," “Taxi" and "Circle" that aging Baby Boomers — and their babies' babies — still cherish. His work as an advocate for the hungry is a legacy that resonates 30 years after his death at age 38 when a tractor-trailer crushed his car on the Long Island Expressway. Chapin died only hours before he was to perform a free concert before an expected crowd of 25,000 at the island's Eisenhower Park. Now another benefit concert is planned by members of the Chapin family, including daughter Jen and his brothers Tom and Steve — also recording artists — at a town park in Chapin's hometown of Huntington, on Long Island. Admission to the Saturday event is free, but fans are asked to bring donations of food and money to benefit the Long Island Cares food bank, another charity founded by Chapin.
