The Matt Buth Foundation, a local charity, raised more than $9,000 with a dinner event last week. Proceeds of the event will go toward scholarships for local music students and a grant for mental health.

Buth, for whom the charity is named, was a local musician who died by suicide in 2019. In 2021, local community members who knew him started the foundation to fund scholarships for students in the community.

The organization’s latest event, a charity dinner and silent auction April 20, at Venue 142 in Downtown DeLand, included catered food, drinks from Downtown DeLand’s Wander Bar and speeches from local mental health counselor Ella Shepherd and Buth’s mother, Mary Buth. 

Local efforts like these, Mary Buth told the crowd, help keep Matt’s spirit alive.

The event brought in $9,200 worth of donations, Matt Buth Foundation President Becky Adesso told The Beacon, and all of that money will go toward the $2,500 scholarships the foundation awards and a grant for mental health.

With the success of the charity dinner, Adesso said she hopes to make it an annual event.