KNIGHTS EDDY, NY — A group of excited middle-schoolers from Port Jervis got ready for a day on the Upper Delaware River when their biology teacher Patrick McCarthy arranged a trip with the National Park Service (NPS) and Indian Head Canoes for a cleanup day while floating down the river. Five rafts, deemed to be safer than canoes for the use of the school kids, were donated by the livery company. The kids got into their life jackets and listened to the safety advice before launching off Indian Head base in Knights Eddy on a brilliant, sunny fall morning and floating down to Matamoras for about three hours.

Among advice by the Indian Head guide was to watch out for poison ivy when going on shore, and to keep their safety vests on at all times.

McCarthy worked as a ranger for the NPS, and wanted to give his students hands-on experience in ecology, recycling and river health.

He said, “The more time I spent on the river, the more I wanted to get my students out there.”

McCarthy worked with NPS’s Ingrid Peterec and Anya Shaunessy to organize the cleanup trip, and his students signed up as “official volunteers of the NPS.”

The River Reporter spoke to some of the kids before they got on the river.

Fourteen-year-old Andrew Predmond said, “I’m looking forward to it. I’ve never been on the river before, although I’ve been kayaking on a lake.”

Jasmine Wragga, also 14, agreed. “This is, like, really good for a group of people—helping with the environment.”

Eric Rowe, who was also present at the launch for the NPS, commented, “Everyone had a smile on their face.”

Shaunessy said she was an intern in the area for one year, and the cleanup trip fit in well with the upcoming National Park Service Centennial, when the NPS is concentrating on trying to get more young people to use its parks.

NPS rangers and Dave Simon, a National Canoe Safety Patrol volunteer member, went along on the trip to supervise and advise.