Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation awards grants

The Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation has granted $90,000 in the second round of its multiyear grant cycle donations to three S.C. programs benefiting child welfare and youth arts. The grants will be awarded over three years.

This year’s recipients are:

• Epworth Children’s Home: Epworth’s Family Care Center. The center allows mothers and their children to remain together while receiving treatment as a family.
• Abbeville County School District: Putting Students First, One Beat at a Time. The program helps the district’s schools purchase musical instruments.
• Dillon School District Four: Stayin’ the Chorus. The program sends choral students to regional performances and competitions and helps purchase classroom music materials.

In its inaugural year in 2017, the Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation grant cycle funded the Carolina Youth Development Center, Growing Home Southeast, and the Long Bay Symphonic Society.

Hootie & the Blowfish band members Darius Rucker, Jim Sonefeld, Dean Felber and Mark Bryan created the endowment in 2000. The foundation has awarded more than $2.9 million in grants through a donor-advised fund at the Central Carolina Community Foundation.