Music and Environment

I recently helped run a summer camp for LEAD Agency where we connected music and environmental contamination and educated kids on local environmental harm. At the same time, we were teaching them how to play instruments and express their emotions about the local creek and how they want to remediate in a musical form. They took a song that we used at previous summer camps and added another verse. They also decided to make a punk rock version that was much more “heavy metal” oriented (pun intended).

All of the kids who attended the camp were local to Miami, Oklahoma or neighboring cities. However, there were still kids who did not know about the dangers of swimming in Tar Creek. They also did not know of the Superfund site sitting in their backyard. Now, this is not their fault, because no one took the time to teach them about the environmental dangers surrounding them. This need is what made this experience so important to me, knowing that informing these kids about the heavy metal contamination around them could prevent them from getting sick from it.

Everyone in the camp also wished it lasted longer and had an amazing time with both the music and the environmental aspects. I am very confident that these kids are going to go out into the world and spread the word about the state of the creek and land, and hopefully bring more attention to the need for remediation in Tar Creek.