December 23, 2001
For Immediate Release
Contact: Holly Brooker
(845) 255-1450 xt.1301 Delicious, spicy holiday aromas filled the air recently at the Brookside School in Cottekill as high school Culinary Arts students from the Ulster BOCES Career & Technical Center in Port Ewen joined the Brookside students for their third annual in-house collaboration project of baking gingerbread houses. Mary Trepanier, a teaching assistant at Brookside, coordinated the event.

Throughout the day, Brookside students ventured into the cafeteria where they excitedly worked with the Ulster BOCES students on choosing just the right sweets for decorating their individual gingerbread houses - from peppermint sticks and colorful chocolate candies to heaping scoops of sinfully sweet fluffy white frosting.

Says Irene Powell, Ulster BOCES Culinary Arts instructor, “The students did a fabulous job. It is such a joy to watch the teenagers interact with the small children.”

The 30 Culinary Arts students who participated were from Ellenville, Highland, Kingston, New Paltz, Onteora, Rondout Valley, Saugerties, and Wallkill school districts.

This year’s dazzling gingerbread houses were auctioned off during the school’s holiday party, allowing many parents, bus drivers, and members of the Brookside School staff to take one of the children’s delectable designs home. Proceeds raised from the sale of the gingerbread houses will go toward the purchase of holiday gifts for the students attending Brookside School.

“The children had a wonderful time. This collaboration is a great opportunity for the Ulster BOCES Culinary Arts students and our students to just have fun,” says Marcene Johnson, director of educational services at the Brookside School in Cottekill, a component of the Ulster-Greene ARC.