BOCES Students Restore Putnam REACT Van

Members of Putnam County REACT recently picked up a van that was restored by students at the Career & Technical Education Center. Provided photo.

A Putnam County emergency services vehicle given new life by Career & Technical Education students at Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES is back on the streets.

As part of a multi-month-long project, auto body, welding, carpentry, and construction electricity students refurbished an emergency response REACT van for the county. The organization works closely with fire, police, and EMS services to help disabled motorists and victims of auto accidents, and with the search and rescue of missing persons in Putnam and in the surrounding communities.

Officials picked up their newly outfitted rig at BOCES’ Yorktown campus June 13.

“It’s outstanding, and it saves our all-volunteer team funds that we would’ve had to use to do this work,” said REACT Chief Warren Deitz, who had high praise for the work done by the CTE students. “We bought some of the supplies, and students and teachers did the installation work – and it just came out phenomenal.”

The chief hasn’t ruled out returning in the fall for some additional adjustments to provide hands-on experience for new sessions of students.

Each CTE class took turns with the van. Steve Simpson’s auto body students stripped out old wiring, removed existing shelves, and installed an air conditioning unit, while Rob Stanford’s welding students added support to the roof to shore up the air conditioning unit.

Then it was off to carpentry where Chris Russo’s students put in benches. Last, Larry Marino’s construction electricity students ran all the wiring and added the necessary outlets and lighting.

The van’s first scheduled public event is the Southeast Fireworks Extravaganza on July 6.