Our summer reading program this week features the Oceana Family Literacy Bucket Drummers. This Lincoln City group of children and adults will be making music and teaching the audience how to drum on buckets. The show is at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 13.If you’re planning to come you can either bring your own bucket (or drum) or use one of the empty ice cream, yogurt or coffee ‘buckets’ we’ve collected at the library. Thanks to Sharon Gordon of Flashbacks Diner in South Beach, we should have lots of ice cream buckets.
Oceana Family Literacy (OFL) in Lincoln City is a place that provides youth and adult students with learning opportunities and invites volunteers to be of service. They are an all volunteer community-based organization building community through literacy....including drumming! They share a commitment of providing education for all.
Vicki Menses, OFL program coordinator, tells us, “Our learners are native and non-native speakers of English. The learning center is located at 1426 NW 15th in Lincoln City. The learning environment is welcoming and encourages learning through the exchange of cultures and languages while allowing families to learn together. Children are welcome and have a room dedicated to their learning and play. Oceana was founded by dedicated educators, students, and community members committed to sustaining and supporting literacy services for our families in Lincoln City. We will be two years old in January!!”
“The Oceana Family Literacy Bucket Drummers are an inter-generational, multicultural community drumming group. Why music? I believe that music is an important component of learning and that it is integrated into speaking, listening, reading, and writing....language! Why a drumming group? Many things are learned and taught through a group activity with participants who are working together to achieve a common goal! Having an opportunity to share your accomplishments with an audience is an incredible opportunity for all. We use our drums to spread the word about Oceana and to create awareness about literacy,” adds Menses.
The OFL Bucket Drummers been playing together for a year. Their focus includes both found music (buckets) and traditional Mexican drum and bugle corps style drumming. When one of the volunteer moms vacationed in Mexico, she brought back eleven drums for the group to use. Those drums will be featured in some of the songs played in Literacy Park this Wednesday. Everyone is invited to come and drum, shake and clap at the park.
Bucket drumming will happen at all five Lincoln County libraries this week. Wednesday, July 13, the drummers will be at Waldport Public Library (10 a.m.), Newport Public Library (1 p.m.), and Driftwood Public Library in Lincoln City (6:30 p.m.). On Thursday, July 14, they will be at Toledo Public Library (11 a.m.) and Siletz Public Library (1 p.m.).
