Last Friday, CHMA stopped by the basement of the Sackville Library, where thanks to a public school PD day, the kids of the Terrasonga Ecological Musical Troupe had gathered to rehearse.

Project leader Christine MacLeod runs Terrasonga in two Tantramar elementary school classrooms, as well as the troupe that meets outside of school weekly. All are part of the Atlantic Wildlife Institute’s outreach and education programs.

CHMA started off asking the Terrasonga kids to talk a bit about what they were up to:

The Terrasonga troupe is spending its time learning about acting, writing, and putting on a theatre production, as well as environmental issues like species extinction, which is the focus of their production, Have to Have a Habitat. They will debut Have to Have a Habitat at the Sackville United Church on April 22, Earth Day. Proceeds from the performances will go to support the Atlantic Wildlife Institute.

After that, the troupe will take their show on tour to some Amherst area elementary schools, as well as Salem and Port Elgin schools, where MacLeod is running school-based programs with Grade 4 classes this year, thanks to a grant from the Canada Post Foundation.

MacLeod has been putting on Terrasonga productions for years, starting in Amherst when her own children were young, and now continuing in the Tantramar area as formal partners of the Atlantic Wildlife Institute. MacLeod says the fundamental purpose of Terrasonga is “to address some of the environmental stressors that are on kids today,” and also to given them “a mechanism to engage information in a meaningful and networked way, and then be able to inspire their communities to make change.”