Second in a series

Recycling to make Earth Day music

What do an old shoe box, used aluminum pie plate and piece of PVC pipe have in common? If you know how to do it, all can be made into working musical instruments.

City Museum staff members will show kids those recycling skills on two Saturdays during April. The museum is one of a dozen organizations sponsoring Earth Day Around Town events in April.

These events and activities lead up to the 2003 St. Louis Earth Day. That annual family event will be held in Forest Park on Sunday, April 27.

(For a complete schedules for Earth Day Around Town events and the April 27 Earth Day in Forest park, you can visit www.stlouisearthday.org. Also, for last month's YSL.com preview story about the 2003 St. Louis Earth Day, click here.)

Linda Horsley is City Museum's coordinator of events and exhibits. She said the museum's "Recycled Rhythms" activity fit right into the 2003 Earth Day theme, "Passport to a Healthy Planet."

She said, "We'll help kids use objects that normally are thrown away to make a musical instrument they can use."

Marion Nichols is the director of the museum's Art City. That's a part of the museum where kids get to make all sorts of things from recycled products. The museum has set up "Recycled Rhythms" instrument making in the afternoons of Saturday, March 19 and 26.

Recycled instruments

Ms. Nichols said an old shoe box can be made into a shoe box guitar. A clean used pie plate can be made into a tambourine. And a length of PVC pipe can have holes drilled in it to make a flute.

She said the museum will have lots of recycled materials available so kids can make their own musical instrument. Other possible items include wind chimes, drums and maracas.

The museum gets contributions of all sorts of unused materials. But, she added she is always on the lookout for more aluminum pie plates. And, she'll need more heavy rubber bands for use in making guitars.

"Kids can bring their own materials. But they also can bring their own ideas for the type of musical instruments they want to make," she said.

Kids will make their recycled musical instruments in the museum's second floor Art City area. If the weather is clear, some instrument making will be done on the adjacent outdoor deck. Harvey McNaughton is another Art City staff member who will assist kids.

The museum plans to have a Drum Circle and organized performances after the recycled musical instruments are completed.

Another feature of Earth Day Around Town is that kids can earn credits to prizes for taking part in events. .

Be sure to get your Passport to a Healthy Planet booklet. Then, when you take part in Earth Day Around Town events, be sure to ask for passport stamps. Then, you can earn prizes from some of the Around Town organizations.

Also, you'll be able to enter in three grand prize drawings at the Sunday, April 27, Earth Day celebration.

Besides the museum, other organizations holding Earth Day Around Town events are:

• St. Louis Community Air Project, a bookmark design contest (Entries by April 16).
• Saint Louis Zoo, a Missouri wildlife scavenger hunt, all April weekends.
• Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center, the Show-Me mobile aquarium, Saturday and Sunday, April 12 and 13.
• Gateway Center for Resource Efficiency, a tour of the EarthWays Home on Open House day, Friday, April 18, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Missouri Botanical Garden, visit demonstrations and displays by Earth Share of Missouri organizations, Saturday, April 26, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• 12th Annual Tree, Earth and Arbor Day at Chesterfield's Central Park, Saturday, April 26, 9 a.m. to noon.
• Grace Hill Americorps Trail Rangers Project on the Bicycle the Riverfront Trail, Saturday April 26, starting at 10 a.m.
• Piwacket Theatre's Enchanted Forest Carnival in Tilles Park in Ladue, Saturday, April 26 at 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• St. Louis Teachers Recycle Center Inc., pick up recycled materials during April for making a boat for the Earth Day regatta.
• Missouri Department of Natural Resources, visit one of St. Louis' area state parks. They include Scott Joplin House State Historic Site, First Missouri State Capitol State Historic Site, Castlewood State Park and Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial State Park.

You can get directions and details by clicking on the www.stlouisearthday.org website.