100+ Teens at Band Knight Fundraiser for NHS Senior Show

Over 100 teens came out to Band Knight at the Pascack Community Center to help raise funds for the Nanuet High School senior show. Elio Vezza, senior at NHS, acted as MC for the evening, creating the band lineup and pumping up the audience.

"The crowd was really into every single band and every band was on top of their game," said Vezza.

The bands playing included local bands BlindFire, Through the Weekend, Rich Wilhelm, and The Longest Monday, as well as Curious Volume from Staten Island and The Nico Blues from New Jersey.

"I came to see The Longest Monday (Vezza's band). I've always loved their music. We support them whenever we can," said Danielle Vitale of Nanuet.

Vezza contacted the out-of-town bands after hearing their music on myspace.com. The entire show took about a month to organize, including inviting the bands and asking for permission to use the space.

Antoinette Flynn and Patti Roth, who Vezza credits as "the wonderful people who made this possible," run the Teen Knight events at Nanuet High School for the middle school students.

"It's not fun for the high schoolers to hang out at the high school like it is for the middle schoolers. They're there all day. So Clarkstown was kind enough to work with us and give us this place to put on shows," explained Flynn.

Vezza hopes that the $200 raised in admission sales will be enough to pay for the royalties for Grease the Musical, but is open to any fun show that they could afford.

The money made at Band Knight always goes to a cause picked out by the Teen Knight committee. According to Flynn, another show is scheduled for January as a fundraiser for the Connor Corish Scholarship Fund.

"As long as kids keep coming, we'll keep having events and raising money," said Flynn.

Volunteers are always welcome. If you'd like to help out at Band Knight or Teen Knight, contact Antoinette Flynn at adfflynn1@aol.com.