For Immediate Release
Contact: Holly Brooker
(845) 255-1450 xt.1301 Ulster BOCES Students Spotted Along the Hudson

The sun may have been warm on their backs. The river may have looked inviting. But the plastic bags that they were sporting over their shoulders weren’t the latest trend in swimwear – and this outing was no day at the beach. This spring, for the third year in a row, students from the Ulster BOCES Educational Center in Tillson joined hundreds of other volunteers in the Scenic Hudson’s Great River Sweep.

While the annual clean-up day took place along the entire length of America’s “first” river, the 15 Ulster BOCES students from Cassie Thomas, Grace Jurgens, and Dana Mewes’ classes concentrated their clean-up efforts at the George Freer Beach in Port Ewen. They will also be working with Scenic Hudson to build water bars and a footbridge on the Shauepaneak Peak. Water bars, Ulster BOCES job coach James Rahm explained, are trenches that are dug into a hillside and then are filled with rocks to cut down on erosion.

“We worked with Scenic Hudson on them last year,” said Rahm. “The students really enjoyed it.”

The days up on the ridge with Scenic Hudson educators have been “really wonderful and instructive” for the students, Rahm added.

While the students performed valuable community service through their participation in The Great River Sweep, they were also offered unique educational opportunities.

“Some of these students will be able to work as park guides for Scenic Hudson over the summer,” he explained. “They really learned a lot.”