Photo by Julia Bonavita

Board of Directors of Dreyfoos member Patrick Cousins (L-R), Mitch Winehouse, Board of Directors of Dreyfoos member Bill Fritz, Board of Directors of Dreyfoos member and Dreyfoos alumnus Brandon Levine, and Principal Dr. Susan Atherley present the $50,000 check from the Winehouse Foundation.

Amy Winehouse’s legacy will live on at Dreyfoos as the Winehouse Foundation, spearheaded by her father Mitch Winehouse, donated $50,000 to the School of the Arts Foundation on May 25, 2016. The celebration, held in Building 2, was accompanied by jazz combo members and band majors Josh Ewers and Michael Mackey, Class of 2016, along with students and teachers from the building. Also in attendance was Principal Dr. Susan Atherley and other members of the Winehouse Foundation.

“[Dreyfoos] is very similar to Amy’s school in London,” Mr. Winehouse said. “This is what attracted us to the school and I’m very happy to be involved here.”

This isn’t the first time Mr. Winehouse and the foundation have been involved with the school. Earlier in the year, Mr. Winehouse and the foundation held a presentation in which Mr. Winehouse talked about his daughter’s life and how alcohol and drugs can affect people.

“In the U.K. we have a resilience program where we speak to kids about their problems and we want to bring it here, we want kids to be able to express themselves and open up about their issues,” Mr. Winehouse said.

To incorporate that program, the Winehouse Foundation along with the Amy Winehouse Project headed by Paul Rubin, hopes to establish an outside of school program with a rehabilitation center in Delray Beach. In addition to establishing this program, the foundation hopes to incorporate some of the $50,000 in helping cover expenses for underprivileged kids who can’t afford travel and audition fees. This will also help in purchasing new equipment for the music department. According to Mr. Winehouse, the money would “help young people do what they want to do.” Both Mr. Winehouse and the foundation have expressed their interest in holding more fundraisers which would help raise money for both the school and the Winehouse Foundation.

“[We hope to have] Amy’s name on a building, maybe a music building within the school,” Mr. Winehouse said. “This donation helps cement our relationship [between the Amy Winehouse Foundation and School of the Arts Foundation] and focus funding in South Florida.”