Carolina Crown is just steps away from adding a $1 million addition to their budget this year, but the competitive drum and bugle corps needs help. Carolina Crown is a finalist in the Chase Community Giving contest on Facebook. The group already won round one of the process, netting $25,000. Beginning Friday, Jan. 15, the campaign begins again. This time, however, $1 million is on the line. The top five runners-up will also receive $100,000.

Voting is easy, said Carolina Crown's director of marketing and business development, Eric Sabach. Simply log on to Facebook and search for Chase Community Giving's fan page. From Jan. 15 to Jan. 22, the top 100 vote-getters from round one, which took place in November, will post video presentations on the fan page telling voters why they deserve the $1 million prize. Voters can select up to five charities they find deserving, and Sabach hopes to mobilize Fort Mill residents to vote for Carolina Crown.

“We're basically doing a grassroots camp to get out the vote, so to speak,” Sabach said. “It's one of those great things where so much of what we do is ask for donations, but here if you vote, it's as good as cash to us.”

Carolina Crown, headquartered in Fort Mill, is a non-profit youth organization committed to "developing lifelong excellence in young people through a superior and challenging performing arts education experience." The 150-member drum and bugle corps that brings high school students from around the country to practice and perform in Fort Mill and around the South East is the largest program that Carolina Crown sponsors. Other programs include CrownGuard, a colorguard program that performs and rehearses throughout the fall, CrownCamp summer clinics, summer music camps for high school students, and the York County Honor Band. Carolina Crown also sponsors Night Beat, an annual drum and bugle corps show frequently held in York County. The group's annual budget is $2 million, according to Sabach.

If it wins the $1 million from Chase, Sabach said Carolina Crown hopes to enhance some of its current programs. It will also consider a long-time dream of the organization: to build a music and arts training center. “Music programs are starved for funding. Band parents often 100 percent fund programs and we look at ourselves not just as a drum and bugle corps but we also help schools that need new instruments, and help music students in middle school to be exposed to new musical literature,” Sabach said.

For more information on the Chase Community Giving campaign, go to www.carolinacrown.org. 

Carolina Crown continues to be an ongoing supporter of the Fort Mill School District Band Programs as well as the Fort Mill community. Please show your support by helping them win this contest. Go Carolina Crown!!!