Tag: The Ducks & Us

The Ducks & Us Songbook Movie Selected for Film Festival

Salish Sea Ecosystem Film Festival 2011 logoThe Ducks & Us Songbook Movie has been officially selected to participate in The 2011 Salish Sea Ecosystem Film Festival. The festival “showcases the best and most recent films, videos and multi-media presentations about regional habitats and inhabitants of the Salish Sea.”

The festival is part of the 2011 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference, the largest, most comprehensive scientific research and policy conference in the region, co-hosted by Environment Canada and the Puget Sound Partnership, presenting the latest scientific research on the state of the ecosystem.

ELA Partners with Distributor

ELA has entered an exclusive partnership with Chip Taylor Communications (CTC) to distribute The Ducks & Us in both its animated and music-only formats. CTC represents a wide array of high-quality media to educators and broadcasters.

ELA is enthusiastic to be able to offer our unique perspective to a wider audience in formats and packages that would otherwise be beyond our reach. Check out The Ducks & Us on the CTC web site and order!

Elkins, WV, To Use The Ducks & Us Songbook Movie

Friendly, well-meaning neighbors and wildlife can make for a sour cocktail, as Barbara Nash of Elkins, West Virginia, discovered. She thought the ducks in her yard were cute when she moved there in 2006. Since then, the population of nesting ducks has ballooned, with neighbors frequently venturing onto her property to watch and share human food. The ducks stay all winter and prevent her from maintaining a garden or a manicured yard.

Ms. Nash petitioned her city council, leading to action by a city council member and the USDA Wildlife Services. Forty-nine ducks were euthanized by USDA Wildlife Services in May, 2010, in spite of a petition with 1000 signatures to leave the ducks alone.

There is a lasting solution, however: education. If the ducks were not lured from their natural river habitat by the promise of human-food handouts, then they may return to their normal population levels and migration patterns. The potential for disease and pollution could be minimized or avoided all together. And Ms. Nash might well get her yard back.

The mayor of Elkins found out about The Ducks & Us Songbook Movie, and plans to use it in a city-supported education campaign. “We’re pro-active advocates of education, art and consensus building, ” said Elkins mayor Duke Talbott in a phone call. After hearing a description of the movie’s human-inclusive narrative aimed at social change through better understanding of the needs of people and wildlife, Talbott said “We want to accomplish exactly those goals.”

For further detail:

The Ducks & Us On The Radio

Pamela Sackett was interviewed about The Ducks & Us Songbook Movie Sunday, July 18, 2010, on ‘Conversations’ with Lizz Sommars on these stations:

  • KMTT, 103.7 FM, ‘The Mountain’, between 6:00 – 7:00 a.m.
  • KISW, 99.9 FM, ‘The Rock’, between 6:00 – 7:00 a.m.
  • KKWF, 100.7 FM, ‘The Wolf’, between 7:00 – 8:00 a.m.
  • KNDD, 107.7 FM, ‘The End’, between 7:00 – 8:00 a.m.

The interview is also available on KMTT’s web site, www.kmtt.com. (Must scroll way down to find…click the black play button by the speaker icon on a gray background.)

ELA Participates in Summer Event

Emotion Literacy Advocates™ (ELA) joined with the city of Seattle in the “Healthy Parks, Healthy You” event, Saturday, August 22, 2009, at Seward Park.

ELA gave out informational brochures and spoke with dozens of participants about The Ducks & Us Song CD and study guide, which was inspired by activities in Seward Park.

Our thanks to the Windermere Foundation and Silvia Wilson for support and enthusiasm in our educational mission!

The Northwest Boys Choir Sings for The Ducks & Us

ELA is developing a new learning tool entitled The Ducks & Us—an original song CD with study guide. The Ducks & Us focuses on wildlife safety and protection and compassionately juxtaposes the science of wildlife protection with the social-emotional nature of human engagement with wildlife.

ELA is excited that Northwest Boys Choir, conducted by Ben Kromholtz, elected to participate. Kromholtz arranged harmonies for the choir and directed the boys at an ELA-coordinated recording session at KUOW studios, September 24, 2007, engineered by Guy Nelson.

The recording session was a first for many of the choir members, ranging in age from 8 to 11, and gave them valuable experience in the rigors of recording, such as maintaining quiet and intense focus for long periods of time. The boys performed flawlessly, even with some last-minute changes in harmonies.

The Ducks & Us artfully demonstrates—through stories gleaned from a year of researching duck “feeders” in urban parks—hearing, understanding and including human needs with non-human realities for a systemic approach to environmental care and protection.

ELA is in process of study guide completion, working with a number of environmental educators and scientists—from Seattle City Parks, Audubon, PAWS, WA State Fish and Wildlife, Pacific Science Center and other non-profit environmental protection agencies—interested in integrating this learning tool into their programs. ELA is developing a web site for an interactive public awareness campaign and plans to offer the song in choral arrangement for youth groups and schools.

For further details, song samples, study guide excerpts and sponsorship information, contact ducksandus AT emolit DOT org.