The Carly Stowell Foundation may have found the perfect formula for a fundraiser.

On May 13 Chuck and Elena Stowell, who started the foundation in honor of the memory of their daughter Carly who died suddenly of a heart arrhythmia in April 2007, hosted the foundation’s third major fundraiser at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Covington.

An evening of wine, food and jazz performed by Tom Garling, a trombone player, and a group of area musicians netted nearly $11,000 with the money earmarked for a summer jazz band camp set for July 25-29 at Camp Berachah.

“We decided to focus this year on music,” Elena Stowell said by phone on Tuesday. “We weren’t even going to do a fundraiser this year. Then these ideas just started pouring out of our other board members.”

Elena Stowell credited Lorri Hicks and Jim Tanasse for taking the concept for the fundraiser and running with it.

“Jim Tanasse, he is a man of great faith,” she said. “He just looks at me and he says, ‘You know if you are good, good things will happen. It just reminds me that if you do the right thing, the right people will show up and the right things will happen and you get back what you give.”

The fundraiser was part of a two day celebration of music sponsored by the foundation. On May 12 Garling performed with the Kentlake High Jazz Band, which Chuck Stowell directs, after a morning rehearsal and clinic for band students in the Kent School District.

Elena Stowell said the wine and jazz evening seemed to be well received.

“Every event we’ve done has been really different,” she said. “This was a new event. I thought it was pleasant. It felt classy but it wasn’t snooty.”

And it was quite a success.

“We were hoping to at least pay for the camp and break even but now we’re even going to be able to provide scholarships and put money away for next year,” she said.

A renewed focus on music is important because the foundation has put significant effort into building sports programs. Carly Stowell was a successful athlete who played on Kentlake’s varsity girls basketball team as a freshman but she was also a talented musician. The foundation works to support both pursuits.

As the sports programs, which range from camps to club teams in basketball volleyball, have become established it’s now time to further develop the music offerings.

For several years the foundation has supported a summer marching band, Elena Stowell said, but the jazz camp could be a significant piece once it becomes established.

“We’re hoping the jazz camp will grow,” Elena Stowell said. “With Camp Berachah we can make it a residential camp eventually, but, this is the first year so we didn’t want to bite off more than we can chew.”

With the way the fundraiser was received, she believes it should be possible for that to grow to, making for a consistent source of support for the jazz camp.

“It really felt like an event that could be like that, that could grow, that it could be something people could look forward to,” Elena Stowell said. “I always find a lot of the foundation to be bittersweet because it constantly reminds me that I have a loss. But, it constantly reminds me that we want kids to have an opportunity and that’s why we started it.”