Community Foundation grants $124,900 to music education

By Eli Tecktiel, Lifestyle Writer

October 31, 2023

The NIU Steel Band plays for Sycamore High School music students during a workshop funded by the Sycamore Education Foundation to learn about the steelpan and Caribbean music. The Sycamore Education Foundation is one of many recipients of the Farny R. Wurlitzer Foundation grant, which announced its Fall 2023 class of grantees Monday. (Courtesy of the DeKalb County Community Foundation)

The DeKalb County Community Foundation has awarded $124,900 for music education through grants with the Farny R. Wurlitzer Foundation.

The local recipients of the grants include Community Coordinated Child Care, Hinckley Historical Society, Jazz in Progress and Opportunity House Inc.

In addition to the local recipients, 27 organizations in the Chicagoland area were awarded grants including Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Rockford Symphony Orchestra and Southland Charter High School.

The Farny R. Wurlitzer Foundation was founded by Farny and Grace Wurlitzer. The foundation supports music education in the Chicago area. Though it was established in the 1940s, the organization is a fairly recent addition to DeKalb County’s Community Foundation, having joined in 2012.

Wurlitzer, which was once one of the largest musical instrument companies in the United States, historically manufactured its instruments in DeKalb.

Community Foundation Grants Director Jolene Willis expressed gratitude to the grantees.

“It is an honor to continue the legacy of the Farny R. Wurlitzer Foundation by awarding grants from this Fund, and we appreciate the Fund’s Board of Advisors for making these impactful funding decisions,” Willis said in a press release.

Donations to the Community Foundation can be made at the foundation’s website or sent via mail to the DeKalb County Community Foundation, 475 DeKalb Ave., Sycamore, IL, 60178.