FLOW Follies Awards Over $40 Grand in Scholarships

FLOW Follies awarded over $40,000 to Ramapo-Indian Hills graduating seniors last week, funded through the all-volunteer efforts of the group’s March musical production.

Since 1986, the organization has raised over half a million dollars through its annual spring musical comedy shows, providing a generous college send-off to hundreds of Franklin Lakes, Oakland, and Wyckoff seniors.

This year, “We Flow Together,” an original produced by Carla Pappalardo with executive director Curt Buckler and musical director Anthony Bebilacqua, two theater pros, featured a 35-member cast of parents and teachers as well as cameos by the towns’ mayors and the RIH Board of Education.

“The idea of the show was a high school reunion, and one of the things was we sort of turned back time, so people reminisced about different events years ago when they were kids,” Pappalardo said of the show, a time-traveling comedy produced to relate the high school experiences of students and parents.

“The idea was that the crazy things that happen in high school also happened back in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s,” she said.

This year’s production raised $40,500 in for FLOW students in four showings, and last week the organization distributed the checks for $750 scholarships to 25 students at each of the regional high schools.

To be eligible for an award, the student’s family had to be a Friend of FLOW Follies and submit an essay detailing their community service over the course of their high school career. Recipients were chosen by a team of teachers and guidance counselors at each school.

For a full list of scholarship award winners, see the FLOW Follies website.