A Gift to the Friends of Ocean City Pops Inc. Sets a Record

OCEAN CITY – With help from part of a generous gift of more than $50,000, The Friends of the Ocean City Pops, Inc., and Pops Music Director William Scheible will open the Music Pier late this summer to a National Public Radio broadcast and give young musicians in the region a chance to be heard by music lovers throughout the United States.
The donor is Flora Baker, a remarkable, silver-haired benefactor who divides her time between Ocean City, NJ, and Oahu, Hawaii.
Her gift to the Friends is the largest in the history of the all-volunteer organization which supports the Pops orchestra, and a portion of it will defray costs associated with bringing NPR’s popular “From the Top” program to Ocean City on Wednesday, August 31.
Now in its 11th year, “From the Top” is a weekly show that spotlights the talents of outstanding young musicians in local communities. Hosted by acclaimed pianist Christopher O’Riley, it is taped before a live audience and heard on nearly 250 radio stations with a total average weekly listenership of 700,000 people. (Locally, it is heard Sundays on Temple University’s WRTI-FM, 91.3, from 2-3 p.m.)
The taped Music Pier performances will be broadcast nationally next October.
The gift from Mrs. Baker will also be used to augment the Friends’ endowment and benefit The Frank Ruggieri Society, a fund named in honor of the Pops’ former conductor.
“The Ocean City Pops is a wonderful organization that I enjoy year after year,” said Mrs. Baker, who is a very active 91 years of age. “Back in the 1960s, my mother, Elizabeth Ulrich, also loved it night after night. She and her friends would never miss a concert,” she reminisced. “The Pops is one of the true highlights of Ocean City and a real bargain when you consider the exceptional quality of its musicians.”
Flora Baker has had a passion for music since age eight when she took up the violin. She continued with the instrument into her 20s. Even though she eventually stopped playing, the violin became a treasured keepsake at the Bellevue Hotel which she and her late husband, Benjamin, owned at 8th Street and Ocean Avenue in Ocean City.
But when they sold the hotel, “someone stole it,” she recalled. “I was heartbroken.”
Today, there’s jubilation, not heartbreak, for those at the Pops orchestra and the Friends.
Director Scheible and Ken Hoover, chair of the Friends board of trustees, both expressed gratitude to Mrs. Baker for her generosity.
“With this gift, Flora Baker has made a very strong statement about the importance of supporting the arts in our community,” said Scheible, who is looking forward this summer to his 25th year as the orchestra’s maestro and guiding light.
Added Hoover: “Mrs. Baker is a renowned philanthropist who cares deeply about her community. Her wonderful gift to the Friends will generate priceless dividends well into the future.”
The Friends plan to honor Mrs. Baker at the South Jersey Cultural Alliance’s 16th Annual Paul Aiken Encore Awards ceremony on Thursday, May 19, in the Grand Ballroom of Bally’s Atlantic City. The event recognizes patrons of the arts, history, and cultural community.
Baker’s gift is also a harbinger of a major fundraising effort that will be announced later this spring in conjunction with the celebration of Scheible’s quarter-century of leading the Pops orchestra.