Live music and buffet featured at Exchange Club Benefit Event

The Culver City Exchange Club is hosting its 3rd Get the Funk Out Benefit Night on Saturday, April 11, from 7 p.m. to midnight at the former NFL headquarters at 10950 Washington Blvd. Money raised from the event — which will feature live music and an Italian buffet for attendees — will go to the Culver City Backpacks for Kids Program, which provides backpacks full of food each Friday to students attending Culver City Unified School District schools.

Described as a group of “do-gooders” by Culver City Exchange Club Board Member and Event Producer Jeff Cooper, the Club is part of a larger nationwide network of National Exchange Clubs that works to benefit the community, with a particular focus on the well-being of society’s youngest members: its children. Specifically, the primary national edict of the group is the prevention of child abuse.

The Culver City Exchange Club has expanded on this mission to include a wide range of beneficiaries. Many residents may know the Exchange Club from its largest event, the Culver City Car Show, which raises money for a variety of Culver City organizations and charities.

The group also ran the Culver City Fireworks Show, which celebrated the 4th of July holiday before it was replaced by the Downtown Independence Day Celebration and Drone Show, and hosts the Beer and Wine Gardens seen at events like Fiesta La Ballona. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the group helped found the Feed Culver program, which helps food-insecure families in Culver City.

“Our main emphasis is we try to help anywhere, anything, and any group that comes to us,” Cooper said.

The group still takes its primary calling very seriously, serving children through larger events like Get The Funk Out and through smaller daily activities, such as afterschool programs and providing disadvantaged kids with “scholarships” to the YMCA’s afterschool programs. They also work directly with students, providing support and financial assistance to the many clubs at Culver City Unified School District.

In addition to raising money for schools and the organizations that serve their students, the Exchange Club has directly contributed to improving conditions at these schools. Among their major contributions is rebuilding the library at La Ballona School in May 2024, which the Exchange Club went to great lengths to see completed.

“That library was in really rough shape,” Cooper said. “We literally raised funds, tore it all down, and got an architecture firm to redesign and rebuild it.”

Cooper says that providing equity was a key factor in the club’s decision to select La Ballona — which has a less economically privileged student body — for the library reconstruction, and that their current grand undertaking involves designing and raising funds for a teacher’s lounge at Culver City High School. While the District has received funding for facilities improvements, money for a teacher’s lounge is not among the projects being funded by Measure E or Measure O.

Saturday night’s proceeds will benefit the Culver City Backpacks for Kids program, which provides meals to students in need and is sponsored by the Culver City Education Foundation and the CCUSD Council of Parent Teacher Associations. This is the third year that the Club has thrown this event — which raised around $13,000 last year — for Backpacks for Kids, and Cooper said it was only natural to work with a group that aligned so closely with its primary directive.

“It really resonated with us because it’s really helping kids and their families that are suffering from food insecurity,” Cooper said. “It’s just a great cause, and if we can help out in any way, that’s what we want to do.”

The event will feature live music and a buffet, which makes the former NFL headquarters a perfect venue. The professional sports league moved its operations to SoFi Stadium in 2021, and owners Hudson Pacific has since given the Exchange Club permission to use the property for this celebration.

“They have large sound stages there, and [Hudson Pacific] allows us to use them to have this large dance event,” Cooper said.

Food for the event will be provided by Sorrento Italian Market, and attendees will be treated to an “Italian feast” of a buffet alongside a cash bar. The music at the event will be provided by The K-Tel All-Stars, a ’70s tribute band that amplifies its performance with authentic costumes and choreography, and Jaime and the Ass Kickers, led by Jaime Estes Segal.

Creating positive experiences for those of all ages and helping those in need through events like Get the Funk Out serves as a perfect representation of the Exchange Club's mission. The Culver City Exchange Club is a volunteer-run nonprofit with no financial motive; it is simply a group of people who are looking to help make their community a better place for all.

“We are just a group of people that are still 'working Joes' like myself or retired people that love our community,” Cooper said. “Where we see people in need, we help.”

Tickets are $40 when purchased in advance here and $50 at the door. CCUSD teachers and staff can save $15 by using the code “CCUSD4FUNK.”