Thumbs up to foundation for donating musical grant

Morning News
Published: July 26, 2008

Thumbs up to the Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation Fund for awarding a $3,000 grant to the S.C. Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics in Hartsville to expand the school’s music instruction opportunities. In addition to skills in science and mathematics, 40 percent of the students who come to study at the school bring with them talents in music as well as instruments from home, which they practice during the hours not reserved for academics. Because of the rigor of its intensive curriculum, the school incorporates no formal music education classes into its academic schedule. This gift from the Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation Fund, sponsored by the Central Carolina Community Foundation, will help to expand the teaching hours of an adjunct music instructor in the 2008-2009 school year. The instructor will work with the band/orchestra, chorus and gospel choir, as well as the interim music performance students in January. The instructor will assist students after school as they plan, practice and perform musical programs and provide support for All-Region and All-State Band auditions.

Debbie Hyler, executive director The School Foundation, gives thumbs up to Honda of South Carolina Manufacturing Inc. for giving $25,000 to the foundation July 10 as part of Honda’s 10th anniversary celebration. Honda also gave the same amount to Florence School District 4 and the Timmonsville Public Library. The donation to the foundation isn’t designated for a specific program, Hyler said. Some of it will help with the foundation’s grants program for Florence School District 1. The School Foundation, which supports all students who attend public schools in Florence School District 1, is the largest endowment for any public K-12 school system in South Carolina. The money raised by the foundation doesn’t go toward normal district operating expenses; rather, it targets student academic achievement and good citizenship, teacher quality, school safety and district leadership and impacts quality through grants of $10,000 or more. “Honda continues to be a dedicated community partner by supporting The School Foundation’s efforts to promote educational excellence in Florence School District 1,” Hyler wrote. “They recognize that a strong public school system helps the entire community by both preparing students for the work force and attracting new industries to the area.”

Thumbs up to all those who participated in the 25th Annual BI-LO Charity Classic golf tournament, which raised a record-breaking $5,659,000 that will benefit an estimated 500 charities in the four-state region served by BI-LO. Among the Pee Dee agencies expected to receive funding this year are Pee Dee Area Council of Boy Scouts of America, McLeod Children’s Hospital in Florence, the Darlington County Council on Aging and The Manna House of Mullins. BI-LO Charities Executive Director Carol Browning said the record-breaking total was also made possible by hundreds of volunteers and BI-LO teammates who donated more than 5,000 hours of time, allowing BI-LO Charities to minimize costs associated with putting on the nation’s largest single-day golf charity event. The BI-LO Charity Classic was founded in 1984 as a fundraiser for Meals on Wheels of Greenville. By 1998, the tournament had become so large that a separate charitable organization, BI-LO Charities Inc., was formed. The BI-LO Charity Classic has raised more $45 million for charities since it was initiated in 1984. BI-LO operates 220 supermarkets in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee and employs about 16,000 people.