The band that many have grown up listening to (depending on who you are asking) is coming home next weekend.
Hootie & the Blowfish will be performing their Sixth annual Homegrown Concert to Benefit South Carolina Children at the Family Circle Magazine  Stadium on Friday, Aug.15.
The 24-city concert tour will conclude in Charleston, where it all began with an added plus of a school supply drive.
Hootie & the Blowfish’s Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, Darius Rucker and Jim “Soni” Sonefeld met while they were freshmen at the University of South Carolina. It was about 10 years later in 1994 when the quartet’s debut album “Cracked Rear View” sold over 16 million copies in the United States alone. The band saw winning success with two Grammy’s- Best New Artist and Song of the Year by duo or group for “Let Her Cry,” as well as a Billboard Music Award  and People’s Choice Award for Album of the Year, among other awards.
In the midst of their success, the band created the Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation which benefits children of South Carolina through education and supporting school music programs which has spread to a nationwide campaign.
 Lowcountry native and lead singer Darius Rucker, told a   family circle cup spokesperson “Children are our best  resource and our most hopeful investment. With proper tools, our children can receive a well- rounded and meaningful education.”
The band established the annual concert in their hometown, Charleston as a way to help raise awareness to the needs of local school children in the community.
Rucker said, “While we were on the road, it was hard for us to pick up USA Today and see that our state was listed at 49 or 50 in education. We really thought that there has to be a way  we can help out, and that’s when we created the Hootie Foundation, in 2000. It was founded primarily to help fund education and music programs in SC. Then we thought it was time to take it to the next level.
   “We noticed that the lack of school supplies available for children was a nightly topic on the evening news, and at the same time we were putting together a show in our hometown, Charleston. The thought was, well, we have this venue with over 7,000 people. If each person brought one pencil, or one notebook and so forth, then that would help out a large amount of students - and knowing how easy that is to ask of our concert goers, why wouldn’t we do it?”
On the night of the concert, ticket holders were asked to bring school supplies to the concert held at Family Circle Magazine Stadium.
Amazingly, a 55-seat school bus was filled from top to bottom with school supplies that were distributed to the schools and teachers in the Charleston County School District that first year.
Mike Saia, communications manager for Family Circle Cup,  said “The Family Circle Tennis Center has been proud to partner with this important event since it was born in 2003.  Through the generosity of Hootie & The Blowfish and their dedicated fans, we’ve been able to fill an entire school bus each year with much needed school supplies destined for local school children in need.”
This success only spurred the band on as they decided to expand the concert into other markets. The band and its fans have gathered enough school supplies to pack over 30 buses (six in Charleston), a total of $150,000 worth of school supplies.
Their goal this year is to double the contributions, to have packed 60 buses by the time the tour ends Aug. 15.
“The Homegrown Concert is proof positive that the community can make a real impact on the lives of our youth, and what better place than right here at home,” Rucker said.
The Homegrown Concert has sold out in each of the three previous years, setting concert attendance records each time at Family Circle Magazine Stadium.  
“We’ve increased seating capacity to accommodate over 7,500 fans this year, and we encourage fans to buy tickets in advance because we will likely sell out before the day of the show,” Saia said.
General admission seating is still available in the Third Tier for $25 via www.Ticketmaster.com, Ticketmaster Charge-by-Phone (843) 554-6060, at local Publix outlets, and at the Family Circle Tennis Center ticket office weekdays from Monday through Thursday (9 a.m -5 p.m., and Friday, 9 a.m. – noon).
 Fans will also be able to keep track of the giving in each city on the band’s Web site, www.hootie.com.
“We know we’re not fixing the problem, but we hope we are helping out those who need the most,” said Rucker.

(Helen Ravenel can be reached at helen@moultrienews.com. Read more stories online at www.moultrienews.com.)