Members 1980's

    As the club moved into the 1980s, there were other challenges for
SEQ, Nathan Thompson (BHS ’80), presently a Associate Professor of
Medicine at NYU Medical Center, recalled that he was attracted to SEQ
through friends who were already members and because he had a class
with Mr. Cooley. He was a member of SEQ for all four years, and he
remembered that there were between twenty-five and thirty members
during his tenure. Thompson actually wrote an article about the New
York State Returnable Container Act (more commonly referred to as the
New York State “Bottle Bill”) that was published in 1980 in The Outdoor
Communicator, the official journal of the New York State Outdoor
Education Association.
    Another SEQ alumnus who graduated from BHS in the Early
1980’s was Debbie Schmidt-Barley (BHS ’81). Having seen a notice of the
History of SEQ project in the SCEF newsletter, Schmidt-Barley emailed
that she was in SEQ from 1977 to 1981. She too worked extensively
towards the passage of the countywide “bottle bill” that passed in 1981.
Additionally, she stated that, “I then continued the work towards statewide

passage with the New York
Public Interest Research
Group (NYPIRG) while
I attended SUNYBinghamton.”
Like all of those interviewed
for this project, Schmidt-Barley
acknowledged, “those Mr.
Cooley and SEQ years
significantly shaped who I am
and what I have done since then.”
    Another 1980’s graduate
and former SEQ member,
Mike Fishman (BHS ’84),
contacted us through the
SCEF. Fishman, presently a
certified biologist working
for Stearns and Wheler, LLC,
Environmental Engineers and
Scientists, Cazenovia, NY, was a
member from 1980 to 1984.
“At that time SEQ’s focus was its
diligent lobbying efforts for the
state bottle bill and there was an
article written by Family Circle Magazine
concerning groups of students who

had accomplished outstanding achievements - and that SEQ was highlighted.
Itincluded a picture of the members standing by the Beaver Dam Creek.”

      Michael Bernstein, who was involved with SEQ from 1983 to
1986, remembered SEQ lobbying in Albany on behalf of a few causes:
expanding the bottle bill beyond soda cans and bottles, and habitat protection.
“We chartered a bus each year and went up to Albany to meet with
individual legislators and their aides.”
    Additionally, consistent with some of the efforts from the 1970’s,
Bernstein noted that “we did an annual fundraising drive in Bellport
Village followed by a clean up day where we’d pick up massive amounts of
trash from various locations around the school district… and bring the
trash to the dump.” Some things apparently don’t change, as trash
cleanups continue today, be they land-based with the Bellport Chamber of
Commerce up and down Station Road, or water-based with our annual
Fall Carmans River canoe/kayak trips, which SEQ now does with the
BHS Outdoor Club.

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