Hornets executive hosts fundraiser with local sports, business VIPs

CHARLOTTE — Charlotte Hornets executive Fred Whitfield hosted a private fundraiser this week at Steak 48 in SouthPark that will help fund four, four-year scholarships at Charlotte Country Day School.

The academic scholarships are expected to be awarded in time for the start of the 2022-23 school year. Whitfield is turning to local nonprofits to help vet candidates for the scholarships, hoping to select two boys and two girls to attend the school at no cost for all four years of high school.

The scholarship program is a collaboration between Whitfield’s nonprofit HoopTee Charities Inc., former Hornets minority owner Henry Shaw’s Dee-Lite Foundation and Charlotte Country Day. The combined value of the four scholarships is $500,000.

“We’re just trying to find as many ways as we can to give back to help as many kids as we can get educational opportunities,” Whitfield told CBJ.

Sports and business VIPs in attendance included Marcus Smith, CEO of the company that owns Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, retired Hornets great Muggsey Bogues and former Panthers star Steve Smith, among others.

Read more and check out scenes from the event here: bizj.us/1qechp

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