School Earth Day recital infused with grim apocalyptic overtones

Lakewood Elementary students explain the Earth's doomed fate through song.

"It's great to see all the kids coming together and singing about an important subject," said Heidi Jonson, whose fourth-grade daughter's vocal solo in the song "Where Will We Go?" outlined humanity's determined march toward extinction through environmental negligence. "My little girl was so good tonight. She clearly stood out as the most talented child in her class."

The Earth Day recital, held the evening of April 22 in Lakewood's DeVoles Park, featured first- through sixth-grade students singing environment-related lyrics atop prerecorded musical accompaniment. Through songs such as "Don't Throw It All Away" and "Running Out Of Time," the schoolchildren presented a musical explanation of how humans' thoughtless, environmentally unfriendly behavior will eventually render the planet uninhabitable, inciting cheers and applause from the proud parents comprising a majority of the audience.

"My favorite song was definitely 'Please Save the Trees,'" said parent Mike Chin, who owns a small asphalt paving plant. "The lyrics described how greedy forestry practices are depleting the planet of its best defense against global warming and erosion. And my Mikey sang the lead on that one."

Gloria Hojberg, Lakewood Elementary's music teacher and main organizer of the recital, said the purpose of the spring concert was not only to allow the children to show off their musical development to family members, but to spread word about the dire importance of environmental consciousness.

"The kids were totally excited about doing an environmental-friendliness theme," said Hojberg. "We held open class discussions on the importance of protecting the environment, and the more the children learned about how we're depleting the planet of its natural resources and causing the ozone to disappear, the more they insisted that the recital focus on Earth Day. They realized how important it was to spread the message to adults. And there's no better opportunity than at this recital, when the kids have their parents' full attention."

"This is our son Tommy's first recital, and we couldn't be more proud," exclaimed Janie Graff as she and husband David watched their son's class perform a song stressing the threat posed by overpopulation. "Of course, we're just as proud as our other children, David Jr., Jenise, Skyler, Ty and Katie, who are also performing tonight."

Other parents attending the recital - which offered complimentary beverages served in styrofoam cups - confirmed that the one-hour program's grim commentary on the effects of environmental carelessness did not overshadow the children's enthusiastic performances.

"Channel Eight [News] has got nothing on me," joked Charles Bowen, referring to the excessive amount of video equipment he hauled in to tape his eight-year-old son's performance of "When It's Gone, It's Gone" - an upbeat number detailing the rapid consumption of the planet's natural resources. "I'm going to dub the tapes and give them away to family members that couldn't be here. I don't want them to miss my boy's moment in the spotlight."

Although a majority of the recital's songs consistently suggested the inevitability of dire, apocalyptic environmental consequences, one song, "Working Together," performed by Mrs. Halet's third-grade class, offered a more optimistic view of mother Earth's desperate fight for life.

"I think the lyrics to ["Working Together"] were saying that if we work together, we can save the Earth," explained Juan Gomez, parent of fourth-grader Jimmy Gomez. "All we need to do is work together. We can save the Earth."

June 2002