Business leaders from around the Pike County community came out to the Business After Hours event to learn more about the Troy City Schools Education Foundation (TCSEF).

Alex Whaley II and George Tarbox hosted the event and talked about the importance of the foundation and the school system.

“This Sunday I was watching a special report on CBS about music’s effect on the human brain,” Tarbox said. “It was phenomenal when they talked about the impact of arts, in this case music, in increasing cognitive skills.

“With school budgets getting cut across the U.S., some of the first things to go are arts and music. This foundation provide what students otherwise wouldn’t have.”

Whaley echoed many of Tarbox’s comments.

“It’s a very important entity to provide children with opportunities that weren’t around when I was a child,” Whaley said. “Education is an avenue to provide opportunity.”

Former grant recipients Brock Kelley, Heather Bunn and Forrest Lee talked about how grants helped them provide various opportunities to their students.

Those opportunities included community-based instruction, participation in a national archery competition, bringing the Southeast Raptor Center annually, participation in a band competition in Nashville and more.

Around 40 people were at the event including business and corporate leaders, school system members and foundation board members.

Members of the foundation board, Horn Beverage and the Pike County Chamber of Commerce provided free food at the event.

The TCSEF has awarded more than $500,000 in grants over more than a decade.

Business leaders at the event were encouraged to continue supporting the foundation and to consider raising their support.