2014 Harry Hampton Auction at Carolina Billfish Classic

HAMPTON WILDLIFE FUND CO-SPONSORS LOWCOUNTRY FUNDRAISER WITH CAROLINA BILLFISH CLASSIC TO BENEFIT SCDNR

Carolina Billfish Classic partners with Harry Hampton Fund

The Hampton Wildlife Fund will join with the Carolina Billfish Classic (CBC), the third leg of the prestigious S.C. Governor’s Cup Billfishing Series, to sponsor a fundraising banquet with proceeds benefiting the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The banquet will be held at Gold Bug Island, 1560 Ben Sawyer Blvd, Mt. Pleasant, on Friday evening, June 20th, 2014 from 6 pm to 10 pm.

The Hampton Fund is seeking to re-establish the annual Lowcountry Marine Conservation Banquet, first held in 1991. The 2014 event will mark the 20th held in the Charleston area. Proceeds will directly benefit SCDNR’s Marine Resources Division headquartered at Ft. Johnson on John’s Island. Doors open at 6 p.m. and a silent auction begins at 6:30. Food will be served soon thereafter. Sponsorships and individual tickets are available at the door for $25 per person or $40 per couple. Information may be obtained by calling Jim Goller, the Hampton Fund’s executive director, at 803-600-1570.

The Harry Hampton Memorial Wildlife Fund, Inc. is a private, non-profit corporation which partners with the DNR for the promotion of natural resources and natural resource education which benefits the conservation of wildlife, marine and other resources in South Carolina. Funds are obtained solely through private donations and special promotional projects, fundraising events and publications, and administered by a 14-member volunteer board chaired by Dr. Julius L. Leary of Greenwood. In March, the Hampton Fund donated $134,525, bringing the total donated to DNR over the years to $3,033,455.

The Carolina Billfish Classic wants to give back to the area and we feel this is an excellent way to do just that,” said Deidre Menefee, tournament director of the CBC and a Hampton Fund board member. “This is a great way sportsmen can directly contribute to DNR’s marine conservation programs,” said the Fund’s executive director Jim Goller of Beaufort and a DNR retiree.” The Hampton Fund is a long-time partner of the Governor’s Cup Series, helped establish the Bruce Rush Reef in 2005, donated to and correlated funding of the Memorial Deepwater Reef project this year and helped purchase DNR’s educational vessel Discovery in the past. Our all-volunteer board makes sure the money is used wisely.”

Public education in the principles of wildlife and marine resources management and conservation is a major thrust of the fund. Five scholarships are annually awarded to South Carolina resident students to attend a South Carolina institution of higher learning majoring in natural resources, marine science, environmental science or related fields, one is awarded annually in the field of law enforcement/criminal justice and one annually in the field of journalism. The Hampton Fund recently partnered with the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation and received a $50,000 donation for DNR marine projects, two new Hampton Fund scholarships and a graduate assistantship to correlate and publish billfish tag return data collected by DNR.

To view a past blog entry about the Harry Hampton Journalism Award click here.

Projects supported and funded by the Harry Hampton Wildlife Fund include:

*S.C. Memorial Deepwater Reef Project *Educational Vessel Discovery *Bruce Rush Artificial Reef *Hooked On Fishing Not On Drugs Youth Fishing Rodeos *Striped Bass Research

*DNR Law Enforcement Program *Operation Game Thief *Prescribed Fire Council