Valley Bugler
Publishing & Marketing of Castle Rock
Castle Rock couple help children
create music
By Candy Richey
Creativity in children is natural. They dress up,
pretend, and sing joyfully from the soul in a manner that as
adults, we seem to lose. Sparking that creativity isn't
difficult, but guiding it through a productive process can be.
Not so for Buck and Elizabeth Stierle.
Buck has a broad musical background, having served with many
rock and roll groups including Van Halen. In the 1980's
Buck was searching for a more meaningful use of his talents
and joined the New Christy Minstrels. "I thought I would
spend much of my career with them, but after several years was
again looking for more meaning to what i was doing," he said.
Elizabeth, an Oklahoma native, comes from a family with many
talents. Her brother and father are both police
officers. Elizabeth also served in law enforcement.
Her mother brought a love of music and a beautiful voice to
the family, and taught Elizabeth to sing and play piano from a
very early age. She is also an amazing ventriloquist
who, along with her "son" Peter and his buddy "Crow" wow
audiences with her talent. People have made bets on
whether or not there was someone in the wings speaking the
parts.
It was in 1989 when they decided [to] direct their energies
toward the children, that they developed the "Education
through Entertainment" program. Locally, the Creative
Learning Center at Castle Rock Elementary School has utilized
the skills of Buck and Elizabeth to help the children in their
class create a music CD with songs written and performed by
the children. The CD cover was developed through a
contest in which Heather Jacobson emerged as the winner.
They were able to sell the CD as fund raiser. It
contains delightful songs such as Moonlight Falls, Spirit, 4th
Grade Cowboy Monkeys and Thank You Teacher. Buck and
Elizabeth provide the melodies while the children chime in on
the chorus'.
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