- November 26, 2024
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With a full blues band in the background, saxophone included, Anthony Wild did one last lap around the stage, pointing at the audience and belting out the notes to the classic, “I Feel Good.”
The amphitheater at Daytona State College was spilling over with residents and their lawn chairs at the Saturday Night Live! BBQ, sponsored by Beach 92.7 and Mercedes-Benz of Daytona Beach.
The evening, which was a fundraiser for the Flagler County Education Foundation's Take Stock in Children scholarship program, included barbecue sandwiches donated by Joe Rizz, owner of Woody’s BBQ and president-elect of the Education Foundation Board of Directors.
Donations at the event pulled in a total of $1,850, just shy of the $2,000 goal, which would send a student to college for a year.
“It’s an investment,” said Education Foundation Executive Director Deborah Williams. “We’re talking about economic development all the time here, and that’s exactly what this is. We want these kids to go to school; we want them to come back here — the best and the brightest. These kids are the future.”
In addition to the scholarship program, headline entertainer Wild used the time on stage to make a guitar donation from his nonprofit company, Kids Rock the Nation.
“It’s all about building self-esteem through musical education,” Wild said.
At the event, Ronnie Delaney, 10, received a guitar donation, making him the 30th child to receive a guitar from the program.
“We want to get kids off the Internet and get them in their bedroom doing something constructive like playing the guitar,” Wild said. "What I hope is not necessarily that they become a rock star, but that they learn that with hard work and hope they can accomplish anything you want to do in your life. And that’s what Kids Rock the Nation is about.”
