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Bon Jovi Rocks Out for Poly Prep Hurricane Sandy Victims

By Leslie Albrecht | November 14, 2012 3:00pm

BROOKLYN — Hurricane Sandy victims who were livin' on a prayer just got a big boost from rocker Jon Bon Jovi.

The New Jersey born singer performed a private benefit concert at Poly Prep Country Day School on Friday to cap a week of fundraising that gathered nearly $700,000 for school families and teachers affected by the superstorm.

The school has campuses in Park Slope and Dyker Heights, but draws students from all five boroughs, New Jersey and Long Island, spokesman Malcolm Farley said.

About 50 students and 11 faculty were directly affected by the hurricane. One Poly Prep family in Breezy Point "narrowly escaped" the floods and fires that ravaged that area, and the school's baseball coach, who's also a 1992 alum, suffered significant damage to his house in the Rockaways, Farley said.

At the private show at Poly Prep's Dyker Heights chapel, Bon Jovi, whose teenage son plays lacrosse at Poly Prep, wowed a crowd of 600 parents with hits like "Livin' on a Prayer," "Wanted Dead or Alive" and "Who Says You Can't Go Home Again." He also played two new songs he's written for an upcoming film starring Al Pacino.

Bon Jovi, 50, ended the show with a cover of The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun." Then he asked the crowd, "Who wants to be a rock star?" and invited them to donate to the hurricane cause. Bon Jovi himself pitched in $25,000 to the school's relief effort.

Aside from opening their pocketbooks, Poly families volunteered to help clean up Prospect Park after the storm, and the school's IT department refurbished 25 computers to be given to Poly families who lost their computers in Hurricane Sandy.

Bon Jovi's daughter Stephanie is also a Poly Prep alum. Now a student at Hamilton College, she was reportedly arrested on a drug charge on Wednesday following a heroin overdose, the New York Post reported.