During her fall break, Rebekah Docter, a freshman from Centennial, Colo., along with 17 other students from Central College in Pella, Iowa, traveled to Esperance and Schoharie in New York to help clean up some of the destruction caused by Hurricane Irene in August.

The group left after classes Wednesday, Oct. 12 and drove through the night to reach New York. On Friday, they helped clean up the remains of destroyed homes on Priddle Camp Road in Esperance, trying to make sense of the piles of houses the flooding from Irene left behind.

"There was nothing left to salvage," said Kristin Tremper, coordinator of Reformed Church in America relations at Central, who organized the trip. The students moved garbage out into the street so that trucks could pick it up.

On Saturday, Oct. 15, students worked in Schoharie to muck mud out of basements and rip out ruined drywall.

The trip wasn't all hard work for the students. On Thursday, they did a ropes course, ziplining and a cave tour at Howe Caverns. They also hiked and visited The Old Stone Fort, a revolutionary war museum in Schoharie.

"Our students are awesome," said Tremper. "This was the best group I've ever been able to work with. It was a joy to get to know them."

Central College is a four-year, private, residential, liberal arts college in Pella, Iowa, affiliated with the Reformed Church in America. Central offers a bachelor's degree in 39 majors and pre-professional advising. For more information about Central, call 877-462-3687 or go to www.central.edu