Select Flagler School Seniors Receive 239 Scholarships Worth $240,000 at Ceremony

The annual scholarship banquet and awards ceremony started in 1985 as a relatively modest event sponsored by the Flagler Palm Coast Kiwanis Club and the Flagler County Chamber of Commerce, with some $7,000 in awards. Twenty-five years later, the last 21 under the aegis of the Flagler County Education Foundation, the event has grown in popularity and gravitational pull, to the benefit of students, as an increasing number of organizations have looked to be associated with it.

Tuesday evening, 108 organizations presented a 239 scholarships totaling $240,000 to 138 deserving seniors across from the county’s high schools. The awards ranged from $500 (the minimum in order to be included in the annual ceremony) to $14,000, the latter made possible by the Education Foundation. Since its inception the foundation has awarded close to $2 million in in scholarships and grants. The evening’s big donors included the Flagler Palm Coast Kiwanis Club, with $25,000 in scholarships, and the Florida Lottery, which underwrote the cost of the banquet’s food and the evening’s program.

Keep in mind, that $240,000 represents only Flagler County organizations’ donations. Most students will also be receiving financial aid packages in addition to that from out-of-county organizations and foundations, from the schools they’ll be attending, and from the state, through the ever-diminishing Bright Futures program.

None of the seniors knew what they were receiving. It’s been part of the annual evening’s tradition to keep that detail secret. All they knew was that they’d earned something. The money, incidentally, isn’t handed over in checks they can readily cash. Rather, the money is eventually sent to a financial aid account at whichever college or university the student eventually enrolls. Students can then withdraw the funds as part of their financial aid allocations. It diminishes the risk of the money being blown on sundry seductions before the first day of classes.

The evening started in the Flagler Palm Coast High School Bulldog Cafe with the traditional banquet: every candle-lit, cloth-covered table was filled with parents, students, representatives from the civic and business groups presenting awards, and the school district’s top brass: school board members, administrators, teachers. The assembly then moved to the Flagler Auditorium around 7 p.m. for the award ceremony, with Channel 13’s Dave Cocchiarella emceeing the show and the Education Foundation’s Nicole Brose–the elegant workhorse behind the riches–and Larry Henderson, the foundation’s president, welcoming everyone.

As always at these big events, Amy Fulmer’s Formality Singers performed. Jeff McDevitt, a senior at FPC, performed “Shine Your Light,” a song he wrote as an anthem for the Education Foundation. More than two hours of award presentations followed.

Below is a list of every organization presenting one or more scholarship, and the seniors receiving them.