Film crews have flanked the sidelines of Kiefer’s basketball court and hallways in recent days.
That’s because OERB – the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board – has been in town recording a new commercial featuring Kiefer
High School and its facilities constructed on an abandoned oil well site.
“We benefit a great deal from the money that comes from oil and gas (industry),” said science teacher Joe Bill Lierly who grew up in Kiefer.
OERB chose Kiefer because unlike most schools, Kiefer doesn’t have to rely as heavily on state funding as other school districts.
That’s because of the contributions from the oil and natural gas industry.
“We are trying to help other people see how oil and gas is not an environmental disaster,” Lierly said. “It’s not; it’s something we need for us to maintain the way of life that we have
“We have to do a good job of maintaining the environment, but also there’s no reason for us not to benefit from the oil and gas revenues. We benefit a great deal from the money that comes from oil and gas.
“Without the oil industry and OERB, the town of Kiefer would have died,” Lierly said.
This is not the first time OERB has featured Kiefer schools in a commercial. When the land for Trojan Stadium was donated, it contained abandoned oil well site equipment. OERB’s team cleaned up the site which paved the way for the stadium’s construction. That commercial featured the board’s clean-up program.
The OERB current commercial shows the importance and impact of the oil industry on Kiefer schools and the community surrounding it. It features interviews with Lierly, high school assistant principal and girls basketball coach Cory Campbell, and Eddie Rongey Jr., president of Dexxon Oil in Kiefer.
Campbell said much of the funding for extracurricular things at Kiefer comes from the oil and natural gas industry here.
“A lot of donations go to the uniforms that we use,” he said. “Band uniforms have been bought in the past, and there has been dirt work for our softball and baseball fields and parts of the baseball building were donated out here in the hitting facility. When the oil and gas donators donate (funds), we try to make sure it goes directly to the kids.”
Campbell said making the commercial was good for Kiefer.
“It was a wonderful experience and we are fortunate for them to have picked us,” he said.
See the video below:
