In 2003 the staff of the Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation created the “AMD Avengers vs.The Pollution Posse” Activity Book to help teach kids history of anthracite mining and the environmental problems associated with it. But, they wanted to do more.

In the Fall 2008 the Scranton Area Foundation’s Project Partners for the Arts Project Stream provided EPCAMR with a $1,691 grant to work with volunteer AmeriCorps staffer, Carly Trumann, and co-worker, Mike Hewitt, to think about ways to bring mining history back to life for youth.

EPCAMR has done hundreds of elementary-aged environmental education and arts programs for dozens of school districts across the Anthracite Region over the last 13 years on abandoned mines, mining, geology, biology, aquatic biology, art, and volunteerism in local communities.

"Back in 2003, I came up with the idea that we needed to be creative in our approach to teaching kids about mine drainage and abandoned mine reclamation, so that it wasn’t technical and super-scientific," said Robert Hughes, Executive Director of EPCAMR. "We wanted to make our environmental education programs fun, interactive, and exciting, with hands-on learning and outdoor experiences that were related to the local abandoned mine impacts to their watersheds.

"Mike and I thought it would be awesome if we could get funding to create an activity and coloring book based on different coal mining, water quality, biology, science, and land reclamation themes. Plus, we really wanted to become super heroes for the environment related to the line of work that we were in.

"What’s the chance of there being any other comic book super heroes fighting for water quality on Northeastern PA’s abandoned mining landscapes? Not even Captain Planet has stopped by!”

They worked with several artists and graphic design friends to begin to put the character designs and their traits on paper and it eventually led to EPCAMR publishing the “The AMD Avengers vs. The Pollution Posse” activity book.

Prior to Halloween 2008, EPCAMR was working with a well-respected artist in the Wyoming Valley, and good friend of Robert Hughes by the name of Kathleen Godwin, another resident of Plymouth Township. She is one of the collaborators in the creation o fArts YOUniverse inWilkes-Barre where a mansion full of talented artists live, teach, work, and inspire other young artists.

The goal of Arts YOUniverse is to develop inexpensive art programming for the community. She earlier had assisted EPCAMR with pulling together a two week AMD Anthrascapes Art Exhibit where over 50 artists created artwork that contained iron oxide from local acid mine drainage treatment systems.

“I remember meeting Kathleen in 2006, when I was completing my Leadership Wilkes-Barre classes. She had this string with a notepad hanging from the ceiling of Arts YOUniverse where she asked community leaders from the class to sign, if they ever had a passion for art and wanted to make a connection through her," said Hughes. "She said she would do her best to make our wishes come true."

"I signed up and said that I eventually wanted to secure funding to put on a comedy play or theatre performance based on our Anthracite AMD Activity Book and create costumes for all of the characters and the stage settings.

"Not even a year and a half later, after helping EPCAMR to come up with ideas for the grant, we were prepared to submit the application to the Scranton Area Foundation for funding to begin designing costumes and coming up with a draft skit. She came through for me big time! She is one of my most favorite inspiring artists in the Valley."

Although the grant took some time to develop along with honing in on a potential funding source, Godwin suggested Hughes talk with Barbara Gavlick, another local artist and costume designer from Luzerne. He took her advice and quickly followed up.

Hughes had initially made contact with Barbara just before the Halloween rush, so we decided after talking on the phone to meet up to discuss EPCAMR’s ideas for costume designs for many of the characters in the Activity Book in the late Fall around Thanksgiving.

After Thanksgiving, Hughes took a trip to her Costume Shop on Main Street in Luzerne, and had a wonderful and exciting time going over some great ideas for each of the characters.

“You could see the wheels spinning in our heads as we started to come up with fresh and creative designs! We were all smiles at that point,” said Hughes.

She wanted to think about things over the Christmas Holidays and meet back up with Hughes after the New Year. She asked them to write up some of our costume ideas and get them to her in the meantime, which we did.

Hughes thought he was sure if she hadn’t been so busy in the Fall 2008 with the Halloween Season, which was obviously her busiest time of the year, EPCAMR may have been able to get a few more characters completed with this project before it closed.

However, she was able to complete 8 costumes out of the 14 main characters. She left the 4 hardest ones until the end of the project, which were the D-9 Bulldozer, Gobba ‘da Pile, the Limestone Cowboy (Hughes’ costume) and Dolomite (Robert’s horse), Swampy (Hughes' co-worker -Mike) and Wart (Mike’s Bull Frog). EPCAMR is going to complete them under a separate project funding stream request.

In June 2009, Barbara was able have EPCAMR pick up the following 5 characters: Fe Rock, Mang Rock, & Silt Rock (The Toxicity Trio), Coal Face, and Filamentous Algae. EPCAMR began using the Toxicity Trio at a Nature Camp this summer at Hickory Run State Park and the kids loved the costumes.

In early August 2009, EPCAMR was able to pick up 3 more costumes: Brooky the Trout, Pyrite O’Brian, and Al Floc. Towards the end of the month, EPCAMR staff made a trip to the Salvation Army, where they thought it would be most appropriate to purchase our additional clothing accessories and props for as many costumes as possible and give back to another local charitable non-profit organization in the community.

“We were like two kids in a candy store with about $100 and we couldn’t even spend it all, yet our cart was full. We got every kind of clothing accessories you we could think of in all kinds of colors. We’re talking colors of the rainbow!” said Mike Hewitt.

The skits have morphed into an idea by Hughes to create a comedy play EPCAMR would perform on-stage with a willing elementary school from the area, complete with sets, backdrops, additional props, narration by the kids, art in motion, and local children playing each of the characters on stage, complete with silly mannerisms and an interactive presence with the kids that aren’t in the actual play.

EPCAMR has a commitment from a local elementary school principal from the Greater Nanticoke Area’s 4th grade class to participate and they will be following up with the Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre and have set design assistance from a Theatre Group from Bloomsburg University.

EPCAMR's Environmental Education Specialist Intern, Kyra Norton, came from Bloomsburg.

For more information on educational programs, visit the EPCAMR website.