Students From South Korea Provide Recorders for Reservation Music Program

In her Freshman year at Colgate University, Lily Kim spent spring break of 2012 on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, delivering backpacks, sneakers and school supplies from our Spring Fill a Backpack Drive, and also volunteering at Re-Member, an outreach group on the reservation. An active member of Colgate’s Project PEACE, a student group affiliated with Lakota Children’s Enrichment, Lily had learned about the history and conditions of Reservation life.  Actually seeing the obstacles faced by the Oglala Lakota and observing the needs of the schools and the limited programs available to children, however, motivated Lily to take action.

One striking difference she observed from her own educational experience was that in the school she attended in South Korea, every child was required to learn to play a recorder and to read music in order to advance from elementary school. On Pine Ridge, Lily saw that extreme budget deficits had caused schools to cut both music and arts programs.  A school principal mentioned to Lily that her Reservation school had someone willing to teach basic music skills, but they needed recorders to get the program started.

Lily spent the summer of 2012 in South Korea and asked a group of former classmates from the Hankuk Academy of Foreign Studies in Yongin, South Korea, to help her gather used recorders to clean and send to a school on Pine Ridge.   When Lily told her High School friends (Soyeon, Minji, Miryung, and Jiwon) about her trip to Pine Ridge and asked them for help rounding up 40-60 used recorders, their response surprised her.

Lily Kim (left) delivering recorders to LCE President Maggie Dunne

First of all, none of her friends knew anything about modern reservations or native communities in North America and were shocked to learn that the United States, such a prosperous nation, had communities facing such need. When her friends learned about the Lakota community and heard from Lily about the promise and talent among the children she had met on the reservation, they offered to help her do more than just round up used recorders -  they offered to help her raise money to purchase new recorders for the school.  In the next few weeks, together they raised the money and purchased 57 new recorders, which Lily brought with her to the United States when she returned to Colgate University earlier this week. 

57 new and 3 used recorders are on their way to a reservation school right now!

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