San Diego Music Awards raise nearly $1M for school music programs

Driving the news: The goal is to raise $1 million, and it has new urgency as the city slashes funding for arts and cultural programs, SDMA founder Kevin Hellman told Axios.

• "School budgets are getting chopped to ribbons, so I think it's more important than ever that we help to get our guitars to schools, so that kids have the opportunity in public schools to learn music," he said.
• As of Sunday, they were close, raising more than $915,000 since 1991.

Zoom in: This year's awards will honor Steve Poltz with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

• The founding member of the Rugburns does 300 shows a year.
• He also collaborated on several songs with Jewel, including "You Were Meant for Me."

How it works: A group of locals in the music industry nominate and vote on honorees before the show.

• Winners will be announced Wednesday at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay. The event starts at 7 pm.
• You can also watch the livestream on SDMA's YouTube and Facebook pages.

The bottom line: Hellman has been keeping the event going for 35 years because he believes strongly in San Diego's music scene.

• "It took quite a while for the music community to buy into it, but now it's become an annual party," he said.