By SGT. TED BOHNER
Indiana State Police Bremen District Public Information Officer

SYRACUSE — Two Indiana State Troopers from the Bremen Post traded in their police cars in favor of rubber rafts for a few days this week. For the past three years Trooper Kyle Dukes and Trooper Brooks Shirk have spent four days on rubber rafts rowing around Lake Wawasee with area high school students.

Dukes and Shirk teamed with Wawasee High School and the Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation from Aug. 28  through Aug. 31 for this year’s Wawasee Watershed Adventure.

Wawasee Watershed Adventure is a four-day team building exercise that focuses on the fragile watershed of Lake Wawasee. Freshmen students from Wawasee High School row their way around Lake Wawasee learning how to take water quality samples, water temperature samples and learn wetland plant identification.

Dukes said that after all the hard work, they end the week with a raft race and a trivial pursuit game testing the students on what they learned. Shirk commented that this provides a great opportunity for law enforcement to interact in a different setting and encourage young teenagers to make the right choices in their early years.