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O&R, Con Edison Volunteer Spring Cleaners Sweep Through Museum Village

A group of about 20 volunteers swept through Museum Village in Monroe Saturday (April 1) to provide the treasured local collection of Americana with a spring cleanup to prepare for the facility’s season opening April 15.

A winter full of grit and grime that caked the agricultural tools exhibit gradually fell away before a spirited attack of elbow grease that volunteers from Orange & Rockland (O&R) and Con Edison liberally applied to shining, scrubbing, dusting, polishing, and sweeping. The volunteer band kept at it through the morning, accompanied by the steady drumming of rain on the building’s tin roof, until the venerable room glowed in the early spring’s mid-afternoon sun.

See the crew in action.

O&R shares a bond with Museum Village. The collection was founded by Roscoe Smith, a prominent Monroe businessman and philanthropist. Smith also founded and operated one of the several local electric companies that were subsequently merged into today’s Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc.

After more than 70 years, Museum Village still pursues its founder’s vision of educating generations of Americans about the work and life of their ancestors. Through educational programs, hands-on-exhibits and special events Museum Village is dedicated to exploring and interpreting 19th-century rural life as well as inspiring an appreciation for the evolution of industry and technology in America.

About Orange & Rockland

Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R), a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc., one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies, is a regulated utility. O&R provides electric service to approximately 300,000 customers in southeastern New York State (where its franchise name is Orange & Rockland) and northern New Jersey (where it’s Rockland Electric Company) and natural gas service to approximately 130,000 customers in New York.