In blue-collar Burns, chamber music helps bring a small community together written by James Sinks | illustration by Kristiina Almy A former county commissioner plays tenor sax. A research ecologist plays the violin. A police officer plays bass clarinet. And a college student and enrolled member of the Burns Paiute Tribe plays tuba. Twice a year in the Oregon high desert, the nonprofit Chamber Music Society of Harney County brings together volunteer musicians from Burns and the vicinity for free concerts. The most recent, in March, featured fifty-four musicians, and a crowd of more than 200 came to watch and listen to their friends and neighbors in the association’s three ensembles: a choir, bell choir and orchestra. The repertoire is wide, from folk songs to movie soundtracks to patriotic marches. And the shows are a testament that even in one of the more remote places in the country, music has…

ECO drives a new model of climate change education written by Kevin Branaghin The idea for nonprofit ECO, Ecology for Classrooms & Outdoors, hatched in 2005 when friends Sarah Woods and Bethany Shetterly were volunteering as environmental educators. They identified a gap in primary education and a growing need among students who were increasingly interested in environmental studies. “They wanted to expand environmental education and do field trip programs to educate elementary youth in the Portland Metro area,’ said Monica Smiley, ECO director of development and communication. “Since then, they developed an organization and programs that serve elementary students with hands-on field trips and in-classroom educational lessons. At this point, ECO has served about 32,000 students.” ECO developed and has always used a model of direct service, one that sends its own educators into classrooms to teach the curriculum and lead the service aspects of the program, too. The restrictions…