Who is Big Ugly?

Mira and Chuck have spent a week for the past five consecutive summers with the children at the Big Ugly Community Center in Big Ugly, West Virginia. They have felt privileged to be part of this music program supported by regional grassroots non-profit Step by Step. The work done here is summed up well in Step by Step's mission statement,  "For more than twenty-five years, Step by Step has ensured that disadvantaged children living in economically-challenged communities throughout the southern coalfields of West Virginia receive continuous, comprehensive care from birth to independent adulthood. From its early days as a writing group for children in foster care, Step by Step has evolved into a regional grassroots non-profit organization dedicated to supporting children and families as they learn to 'dream, work, and grow' together." 

City kids and rural kids came together at a summer music camp at the Big Ugly Community Center in Big Ugly, W.Va., this August, to create songs. With help from singer-songwriters Chuck Costa and Mira Stanley, of the award-winning group The Sea The Sea and other teachers, the summer campers wrote the music and lyrics to the songs.