New City School's River Kids to perform

The River Kids ecology group at New City School in St. Louis is putting together a new "rap" music performance for the 19th annual Earth Day Festival.

For the 53-member River Kids after-school group, the Earth Day performance is just one of a long list of projects aimed at bringing attention to environmental improvement efforts.

They have a mentoring program to give inner-city kids a chance to learn more about rivers. They also have adopted a section of River Des Peres for periodic cleanup.

One of the more whimsical efforts is Save Herbie Jr. In one river cleanup, the kids found an abandoned 60s-era Volkwagen "bug." Rather than sell it for scrap, the kids decided to "make it a work of art," according to coordinator Ben Griffiths.

Later this month, Herbie Jr. will be accepted at City Museum and become a part of that eclectic downtown museum.

For their Earth Day performance, they are working with That Uppity Theatre Company. Headed by founder Joan Lipkin, the company is helping kids develop stage settings and a singing group.

They will perform Ms. Lipkin's "H2O Rap." That's a song set to a "rap" music beat that celebrates the importance of water to our environment.

Kate Fee

Nine-year-old Kate Fee is a 4th grader at New City School. She wrote the words to another song, "River." With the help of Mr. Griffiths' musical score, the song will be included in a River Kids' CD that will be on sale at Earth Day.

(For more on the Earth Day Festival, visit www.stlouisearthday
.org.)

In addition to the "H2O Rap" performance, the River Kids will have two booths at the festival. They will explain their program and sell different products they've developed.

This is Kate's first year in River Kids. She and her family have participated in one of the River Des Peres cleanups.

Sara Bewen

She said the strangest item she recovered was an abandoned shopping cart. She said the chance to write the song, "River," was her best experience so far in River Kids.

Ten-year-old Sara Bewen said she's enjoyed the opportunities to work on projects involving rivers.

One of those was the drive to paint a 120-foot mural on a floodwall near Rivertfront Park next to the Mississippi River. That project turned out to involve more than just painting.

The River Kids had to petition the St. Louis City Council for permission to paint the mural. A River Kids delegation met with the council and got the approval.

Sara said she was with a River Kids' committee that developed a timeline for the historic period which the mural will illustrate.

"We're going to have professional painters to prime the wall. Then, the River Kids will paint the mural," she said. The mural is to be done sometime this summer, she added.

Three of the kids also attended a River Des Peres Watershed Coalition meeting. That group was trying to figure out ways to make more lasting improvements to the river valley.

Mr. Griffith said, "One of our kids asked if he could make a suggestion. The boy told the group that is was discouraging for the River Kids to clean up in the valley only to find more trash the next time.

Tyler Doll

"The coalition members took his suggestion to heart and included the development of 'accountability' in their plans," Mr. Griffiths said.

Nine-year-old Tyler Doll is a 4th grader. He's in his first year in River Kids.

He's involved in a committee that is upgrading the club's website. That was set up to help with three parts of the group's program: education, communications and fund-raising.

Tyler said he's helping to develop an inter-active game for the site. The game will allow kids to electronically simulate the pick up trash along a river bank.

"If you click right, you pick up the trash. But, if you click wrong, you kill an animal that lives along the river, like a deer," he said.

He said he thinks air and water pollution are the biggest environmental challenges. "You can't stop all pollution but, if you educate people, we can cut down the number of people who do pollute," he said.