Ghost Walk High Falls Tours...
Students Learn Local History by Creating Ghost Walk of High Falls...
Rondout Valley High School Service Learning Project Combines History and Frights to Expand Volunteering Through UlsterCorps
Students at Rondout Valley High School are creating an historic Ghost Walk of High Falls as part of a Service Learning project in U.S. History class. The Ghost Walk will take place Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night on October 28th, 29th and 30th in High Falls and will be open to community members looking for a good scare–and a fun local history lesson. 
Rondout Juniors are researching local history in Ulster County and creating a timeline of that community history for the use of future classes in the district. As part of the project, each student will compile local history timeline events and spin an historical narrative around the true life characters, occupations and events they have researched. The stories will then be woven into a script for a scary Ghost Walk through the historic town of High Falls.
The Ghost Walk will benefit UlsterCorps, a new organization dedicated to connecting volunteers with service opportunities in Ulster County. Reaching out to students in the county through service learning is a major initiative of UlsterCorps. Making service learning a new way of learning is a primary goal of the Rondout Valley School District as well. Service learning puts students in charge of their own learning as they plan and implement their own research projects. The idea it to create lasting learning, as academic goals are achieved through service to the community. The Ghost Walk project is being planned from start to finish by students and will focus on much of the local history which they are required to learn as part of the New York state standards for U.S. history. Service to the community will include historical preservation and education as well as the fundraising support of UlsterCorps, an organization which supports the growth of volunteering and service learning in Ulster County.
“Students are bringing history alive by creating this historically-based ghost walk,” said Stephen Gilman, who is guiding his juniors through the Ghost Walk project. Gilman admits to being bored by his own history classes in high school and that has inspired him to create learning experiences that his students will hopefully never forget. “Our goal is to present our exciting history to the community—we’re accomplishing our academic goals and giving something back to the community at the same time. That’s service learning at its best I think.”
The Drama Club at Rondout High will write the script for the historic Ghost Walk, conducted by live actors, from the timelines and narratives which the juniors create. “Our actors are without a stage this year because of the renovation going on at the high school,” said Joe Reeder, faculty advisor to the Rondout Drama Club. “We were looking for another venue in which to create and give a performance. The Ghost Walk is challenging our actors, writers and stage production crew to expand on their skills and take them out into the community. We’re excited to be supporting UlsterCorps with our performances.”