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Kate Upton Rakes Leaves in Fort Greene Park

By Ben Fractenberg | August 23, 2012 7:42pm

FORT GREENE — A  group of teenage skateboarders were probably not expecting to take photographs with a model when they signed on to help clean Fort Greene Park

About 20 city high school students gathered in the park Thursday afternoon to rake and shovel dirt to get the community service hours many of their schools require.

Professional skateboarder Chaz Ortiz was on hand to greet the teens, and they were just about to get to work when model Kate Upton showed up.

"She's hot, she's on the cover of my GQ magazine," said Alonzo Jackson, 16, after posing with Upton. "And she's naked [in the magazine shot]."

The event was organized by community group Stoked, which works with youth interested in action sports, and skate company Zoo New York.

Stoked founder and president Steve Larosiliere said the group organizes volunteer days to get kids doing something positive and to help them earn community service hours, which some city high schools require for graduation.

"It's all about opportunity, at the end of the day," Larosiliere said. "They get to meet Chaz Ortiz, who's their idol."

Ortiz, 18, who skates for Zoo York, said he's happy to get some downtime from competing to do work in the community.

"It's a break for me," Ortiz said. "I got to meet a lot of cool kids. And they all look like skaters, which is good."

Upton said she was happy to see the kids doing positive work, and she added that she once tried to skate.

"It didn't work out too well," Upton said.

In perhaps skater fashion, some of the kids seemed unimpressed while Upton posed for cameras while they grabbed rakes.

"That's stupid. Famous people," said Dominic Ming, 18, shaking his head. "She is hot, though."