Joyful Activism: River Dragon Street Puppet Parade

Actions to protect the river can take many forms and sometimes you just need to have fun with it. This summer, when my 83-year-old mother and I realized how tired we were of writing letters to the editor, calling our representatives, and attending public meetings with no end in sight, we wondered what action we could take that would lift our spirits instead

of weigh us down.

“A street puppet parade”, I said enthusiastically. I had first experienced the power of street puppets during protest marches for the environmental movement in the 1990’s. The puppets always brought a palpable feeling of joy and unity.

“Oh boy, that would be fun!” my mom said. “We could build a large street puppet of the river and take it on parades around town to raise awareness of its sacredness.”

Later that day, when I pitched the idea to my art-loving teenage daughter, I got a surprising,

“Yes! It could be a River Dragon!”

Thus began weeks of constructing our River Dragon Street puppet and her river friends out of recycled cardboard, hot glue, and paint. We used bamboo from our yard to make poles, and we bought fabric for the body. My daughter did most of the construction, my mom did the sewing, and I reached out to friends and family to drum up some more helpers.

By the end of July, we took it on a trial run in a friend’s yard to see how she traveled and moved. After a few adjustments, we set the date for her first parade, wrote and printed a short handout flyer, and sent out invitations for volunteers, and we were ready for our first River Dragon Street Puppet parade!

9 volunteers met for the first parade on August 1, 2025 through the Gathering Place and over

the new Pedestrian Bridge. We had four people animating the River Dragon puppet, and one

person each for the friends- sturgeon, least tern, dragonfly, and red-eared slider turtle. 8

volunteers all together animating the puppets plus one more to hand out informational flyers

along the way. Before we even got moving, when most of the puppets were lying on the ground still, a family with several kids approached us looking interested. I introduced each puppet to the young boy, and asked him which was his favorite. He said, ‘All of them!” I gave him the turtle puppet to hold, and his eyes widened in joy. Just like that, we were talking about the river and some of the creatures that call it home.

It wasn’t just ourselves smiling and giggling. As we moved through the park we were greeted by squeals of delight and big smiles. People wanted to take pictures with the River Dragon and asked us what it was. Kids, young couples, and elders were equally delighted in the puppets.

One of our volunteers chanted “Protect the river”. Others said, “We love our river”

. One of our volunteers handed out a simple flyer to suggest actions to take to protect our river. A by-stander said, “Thank you for doing this.”

We plan to parade the River Dragon street puppet once a season to raise awareness of the

sacredness of our river. We are on the look out for someone who would like to drum with us

during the parade. Keep an ear out for the next parade date this fall so you can join us too for

this delightful form of activism to protect our river.

Neera Singh

Neera has 25 years of experience in the fields of peace, environmental, and social justice

education in public, private, and home schools. A dedicated storykeeper with family roots around the world, she believes stories of resilience and perseverance must be passed down to youth for them to blaze their best futures.

Neera has a lifelong passion for encouraging young people in times of change. When not hanging out with her young adult daughters, walking along the river, or working with other families and educators as a consultant, you will find Neera tending flowers on her urban micro-farm @fatbeeflowerfarm in Tulsa, OK.