We identified the problem. We attacked the problem. And for the foreseeable future, we've resolved the problem.

Before May 2002, when a jazz musician died in Kansas City with no assets, often this town resorted to passing the hat or holding an impromptu fundraiser or jam session to come up with the money for a funeral. Now, after just five years, that approach has virtually been eliminated. The Coda Jazz Fund, which provides money to bury jazz artists who die impoverished, has raised more than $150,000 and has reached its goal. As a result, Coda will not hold its annual fundraising concert this year. The money means no jazz musician has to die in Kansas City and be buried in an unmarked grave. No jazz musician's burial or funeral has to be delayed while a jam session is pulled together. And no family ends up burdened by debt.

Those days are over. The Coda Jazz Fund now has the means to ensure that each and every jazz musician who dies in Kansas City receives a proper sendoff if the family can't afford the cost. Mission accomplished.

In case you're not up on the Coda Jazz Foundation, here's how it came to be.

Year after year, as a reporter, I watched and reported on families of jazz musicians struggling to give their loved ones a proper sendoff. In 2002, I persuaded The Kansas City Star to establish the fund. We enlisted the support of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation to manage it.

The collaboration has included the American Jazz Museum , Sprint Nextel, the Elder Statesmen of Jazz , the Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors, Phillips-West Public Relations and many others.

Randy Smith, deputy managing editor of The Star, serves as chairman of the Coda Jazz Fund Advisory Board and believes the cause has reached a major milestone.

"It's rare when a foundation is able to identify a problem, gain community support, then go on to solve it," Smith said. "That's not to say we won't have any more needs. But there aren't too many efforts that can claim victory in less than five years."

In the five years the fund has been around, the need has been obvious.
The Coda Jazz Fund has addressed more than 30 requests for burials, gravestones and other services. In the last six months, the fund has paid for the funerals and burials of three noted jazz musicians. Claude "Fiddler" Williams played at the second concert. And when he died, the fund provided for his funeral and burial.

And if you ever wanted an example of how generous Buck O'Neil was, look no further than Coda . At the outset of the fund, O'Neil wrote a check for $1,000 of his own money.

Sherman Titens, co-founder of the Private Bank, serves on the advisory board.

"The Coda Jazz Fund is an amazing success for the entire community," Titens said. "It's brought together people of diversity. They're in the room because of their love of jazz and the purpose of Coda , to help people that really need help."

Pamela Heider-Johnson, program director of the Elder Statesmen of Jazz , said she's proud to serve on the foundation's advisory board.

"We didn't just talk the talk," Heider-Johnson said. "We are actually providing much-needed services with dignity and respect for our community."

Dean Hampton, a member of the Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors, also serves on the advisory board. "This is probably one of the most professional not-for-profits I've ever worked with," Hampton said. " Coda has done something that no one really nationally has stepped out to do. I think we've set a mark for the rest of the nation."

Too often, we blame the government for not addressing certain problems. But Coda shows us all that there are issues that the private sector can resolve. The foundation's success wouldn't have been possible without people who have one thing in common: their love for jazz musicians.

Supporters of the Coda Jazz Fund have created an example for the way jazz musicians in communities all across this nation deserve to be treated.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Go to www.codajazzfund.org , write to P.O. Box 412116 , Kansas City , MO 64141-2116 , or call 816-234-4417.