Dumpster Drummers at DePauw from The DePauw Multimedia on Vimeo.
Yesterday, The Dumpster Drummers came to DePauw University. The group, consisting of percussionists Larry Ford, Brandon Ford and Doug Laughlin, is based out of Fort Wayne, and educates children about the importance of recycling and environmental conservation through a musical performance where they play different types of drums.
The DePauw (TDP): What made you incorporate your percussion backgrounds into your teaching?
The Dumpster Drummers (TDD): Percussionists are scavengers by nature…[When] you play drums, you’re always looking for some kind of cool, unique sound. You know, you pick up stuff around the house and you’re like, ‘that sounds cool.’ So, a while ago, Brandon and I [Larry] developed a [summer reading] program for the library. In Allen County there’s 14 libraries, so about 14 gigs. We just developed it around found items, so, it was different areas of the house. We set up a barbeque grill...where everything made sound. And so kids see that, and…they’re surprised you’re making this cool percussion ensemble out of just something ordinary.
We were doing arts programs in schools and libraries…It really hit the ground when Fort Wayne started their single-stream recycling program…We wrote a program together called “Be Smart, Use Your Cart” and took that to all the elementary schools and that was a really good success. They saw an increase in their participation in the Fort Wayne recycling program and a decrease in the contamination.
The Dumpster Drummers perform inside the GCPA on Monday afternoon.
AUSTIN CANDOR / THE DEPAUW
TDP: How long have you been doing this for?
TDD: [It] was January 2011 when that broke out. So it just kept growing and growing. We wrote a second program for Earth Day about three years ago…and we started just expanding our own…taking what we’ve learned and adapting it into all these different communities.
TDP: You guys dress up as well?
TDD: We decided to do kind of a maintenance guy/janitor look. It seemed to fit what we did. And the yellow helmets were actually the city of Fort Wayne’s idea because the [garbage] carts have yellow lids, and so we kind of just fell into that…It’s been really successful for us. So now, we all have these [different] characters.
TDP: What’s your favorite aspect of it?
Doug Laughlin: My favorite part is seeing the reaction of the kids. You know that they’re listening, because you just kind of have them in the palm of your hand. 90 percent of the time, we know exactly how they’re going to react because we’ve done this so many times now. And…it’s so fun to see their reaction… When we finished the program today, I went down into the audience and there were a couple groups of kids and they were all chanting…“Earth Day, Every Day”…so it’s just good to know you’re reaching them and they’re learning.
Larry Ford: We’ve learned so much since we’ve started this because we’re musicians, and have been our whole careers, and while it’s one thing to be a percussionist…pairing up with someone from the recycling industry really taught us a lot. It’s been a great learning curve. So we feel more confident now as environmental educators.
Brandon Ford: My favorite part is going to a new location and performing in front of a group of students that we’ve never performed in front of. Even in Fort Wayne, they love every time we come to their school, but they know us…Getting in front of a brand new audience, which we’ve gotten to do quite a bit lately, is really exciting to really see the kids get energized.
Before Monday, The Dumpster Drummers had never been to DePauw.
They hope to return in the near future.