Service Learning at The Storm King School is in full swing this fall. Through the School’s ongoing partnerships with local organizations, our students have many opportunities to engage with the surrounding community from working with kids at the Newburgh Armory Unity Center (NAUC) and Beautiful People Adaptive Sports to maintaining trails in nearby Black Rock Forest and helping out at a local food bank.

This year, there is a new activity on the roster that is creating a buzz on campus and helping to make community service “cool.” It’s called the Cornwall Cleanup Crew.

The Cornwall Cleanup Crew (CCC) is a local group of volunteers dedicated to collecting trash, refuse, and litter in our surrounding community and natural environment. The group was founded by a local high school student and a few other environmentally-conscious Cornwall residents.

For several consecutive weekends this fall, several students from SKS have joined Cornwall High School students and other volunteers to help clean up different locations across the town and village of Cornwall. According to faculty member Lisa Shrem, a community service coordinator at SKS, the organizers of the CCC have nothing but praise for the efforts of our students so far. To help spread the word and all of the positive feedback she received about this fun activity, Mrs. Shrem asked the SKS volunteers to give a presentation about their experience. “Having students present their activities and talk about their community service experiences helps motivate other students who may wish to participate,” she explained.

“Volunteering for the Cornwall Cleanup Crew was a great opportunity to see the beautiful nature around here, and to interact with the community,” explained Theodore B. ’26. Ryan W. ’24 expressed a similar sentiment and deemed his service hours with the Crew “an amazing experience.” “This community service activity is absolutely worth the time to spend with endearing friends and create a greener and safer environment for everyone,” concluded Tolik T. ’25. “Just make sure that you wear old clothes that you don’t like, because you’ll be sure to ruin them.”

“The students did a great job presenting. This strategy is proving to be effective in getting more students to sign up for our weekend community service activities,” continued Mrs. Shrem. “Interest has continued to grow and we have even more students signing up for the Cleanup Crew and our other community service offerings. We can’t wait to fill up our rosters and add even more new activities as the school year progresses,” continued Mrs. Shrem.