MAKING MOVEMENT MONDAYS MEMORABLE
by Win Hadley
HURLEYVILLE, August 2021—Dawn Ciorciari says the pandemic made her do it.
As the result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions, Ms. Ciorciari, the General Manager of Bold Gold Media Group’s New York radio stations, was motivated to start walking more with her family last year, and Hurleyville’s Milk Train Trail became their favorite place to do it. Eventually, she invited other families to join them.
“The pandemic created an obvious void in physical activity, particularly among our local youth, who were doing remote school most of the past year and had all of youth sports put on hold,” Ms. Ciorciari says.
Ms. Ciorciari used the local radio stations she managed, WSUL, WVOS, and Thunder 102, to spread the word, then enlisted the participation of Sullivan 180, the Sullivan O&W Rail Trail Alliance, and the Fallsburg Youth Commission, and Movement Mondays was born.
“It’s simple,” she says. “Each Monday we invite families to join together to walk, run, hike, or bike on the Sullivan O&W Rail Trail in Hurleyville anytime between 6-8 p.m. This program is designed to get our community moving with other families on a regular basis. The hope is that this will be duplicated at the other rail trails throughout the County, and ultimately has a positive impact on the overall health of our community.”
Ms. Ciorciari says that on Monday, August 30, Sullivan County Historian John Conway will join in the walk, and provide some narration describing some of the historical events that relate to the trail, such as the explosion of the boiler of a passenger train just before it arrived in Hurleyville in February of 1907. Three crew men died in the explosion, and a dozen passengers were injured. Today, an interpretive sign explaining the event has been erected near the site of the explosion, but there are several interesting sidelights to the story that are not included in the text of the sign.
Mr. Conway says the story pf the train wreck is just one of many he will be talking about during the walk. The walks begin each Monday evening at 6 p.m., with participants meeting at the Milk Train Trail trail head near the basketball courts just off Main Street in Hurleyville.