GREENWICH, N.Y. (NEWS10) – By the end of the year, the Washington County Fairgrounds will have a huge new campground space, fully-furnished to call their own.

And fairgound organizers will have high school students to thank.

Students from WSWHE BOCES’ Heavy Equipment Operation and Maintenance and Environmental Conservation & Forestry programs gathered in a field on the other side of Old Schuylerville Road from the fairgrounds on Wednesday, to show their work thus far to BOCES leaders.

That work includes clearing brush and operating wood chippers, backhoes and dump trucks to gradually transform the land into what the fairground needs.

The plan is to use some of that space for future fairgrounds, with organizers saying that every year, visitors have asked about camping onsite for the fair, only to be turned away.

Now, the fair will have a bounty of new space to call its own.

For the students, the summer ahead will be long, but the trade skills they’ll learn are at the heart of what BOCES is all about. CTE Programs Principal Jared Davis said the year of COVID-19 has been complicated, and kept them away from hands-on learning for some time, but that this is the largest project BOCES has ever tackled in conjunction with the fairgrounds.

Students will still be working during this year’s Washington County Fair, set for Aug. 23-29.