Adventureland To Host Farmingdale Marching Band At Park For Free

FARMINGDALE, NY — Adventureland and its Helping Hands Foundation donated 600 passes to the Farmingdale High School marching band and their family members so they could visit the park this weekend to connect, remember and share happy memories together, the amusement park announced.

The donation is meant to support band members' "journey towards healing" after a bus carrying several students and chaperones crashed in Orange County on Sept. 21. The bus, on the way to the school's annual band camp trip in Greeley, Pennsylvania, crashed and tumbled down a 50-foot ravine.

Gina Pellettiere, the band instructor, and Bea Ferrari, a retired teacher who chaperoned the trip each year, were killed. Dozens of students were also injured but have recovered or are expected to.

Pellettiere, 43, of Massapequa, was a single mother of a 2-year-old boy, Joseph. Ferrari, 77, was a Farmingdale resident.

Since then, many members of the community and businesses have rallied around the marching band, raising money for the band, the injured students, and the families of Pellettiere and Ferrari.

"It is heartwarming to see our Farmingdale and Long Island community come together in the wake of this immense tragedy, and we are hopeful that a day at Adventureland will bring back memories of joy and fun and allow space for new memories to be made with their friends and family," the park wrote in a statement.

Adventureland is open for its final weekend of the season this Saturday and Sunday. The park will reopen for the 2024 season in March.

The Daler Marching Band performed at both the Newsday Marching Band Festival and its homecoming game, despite both events coming just weeks after the crash.

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• 'The Most Beautiful Soul': Farmingdale's Bea Ferrari Mourned
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• McDonald's To Donate To Farmingdale HS Marching Band
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