AthFest Educates announced $28,802 total grants are going to educators and youth development specialists to provide high-quality music and arts education for Athens area youth in grades kindergarten through eighth.

This year, $19,231 was awarded for music and arts programs and experiences for young people and $9,571 for instruments and equipment.

This brings the total to date that AthFest Educates has donated to local teachers and educators to more than $321,000.

The largest grant went to the UGA Performing Arts Center for 4,450 Clarke County School District students to attend live school-day performances at the center.

Winterville Elementary got a grant for 274 students to create their own stop motion films. Lyndon House Arts Center got funding for 56 sixth- through eighth-grade students to participate in a program called “Wear It” with Community, the downtown business specializing in unique sewn fashion. The program invites students to learn to create their own fabric design, cut patterns and sew their own “wearable art.”

Because of AthFest Educates grants, more than 1,000 local third-grade students will participate in Experience UGA’s programming with the UGA Fine Arts Theatre programs, and 35 third-grade girls will participate in a Puppetry Arts Program through the YWCO.

The Bill Collins Memorial Grant went to Barnett Shoals Elementary, where 78 fifth-grade students will work with local professional artist Jamie Calkin creating watercolor portraits.

In addition to the art- and music-based educational experiences students will partake in with AthFest Educates grants, more than $5,500 for instruments was donated to four Clarke County School District schools.

Burney-Harris-Lyons got funding for Yamaha guitars. Timothy Road Elementary received funds for Orff instruments. Whitehead Road Elementary was awarded a grant to purchase Tubano Drums to enable more than 800 kindergarten through fifth-grade students to learn hand drumming techniques. Cleveland Road Elementary will get 16 ukuleles and 15 Snark tuners completing a full class set.