ReCYCLE Your Cycle @ Nashville Earth Day Festival!

Do you have an old bicycle that’s just gathering dust in your garage? How about bicycle-related accessories such as helmets, spare parts, air pumps, even water bottles?

If so, head on over to the Nashville Earth Day Festival on April 17^th and look for Dan Furbish from Oasis Center, a nonprofit organization on Charlotte Avenue that provides a range of services to at-risk youth and their families.

For the second year in a row, Furbish and Amy Eskind will be running a program called ReCycle Your Cycle that accepts tax-deductible donations of bicycles and related items on behalf of Oasis Center.

What if your bike is so messed up that it’s not even in riding condition? It doesn’t matter. Furbish still says the bike can be ripped apart for its useable parts.

What happens with the donated bikes? Furbish collaborates with Halcyon Bike Shop on a program at Oasis Center called The Workshop that gives youngsters ages 11 to 17 an opportunity to learn valuable bike mechanic skills and even potentially take home a free ride.

When the six-week program begins, each child chooses a bike, then takes the entire thing apart. The following weeks, the children slowly rebuild the bikes with the help of mechanics from Halcyon who volunteer their time. In addition to learning mechanical skills, the kids also learn about road safety and find out how to use Nashville’s growing network of greenways and bike lanes.

At graduation, each child who has completed the program gets to keep his or her bike, plus a lock, a helmet and a tool kit.

“The goal was to start a program where the kids had something to do after school and could build something concrete to take home,” says Furbish. “The bike also provides transportation. We found that a lot of kids were so dependent on others for transportation that they ended up spending a lot of time bored at home. A bicycle allows them to explore the city, get to stores and visit friends. We make an effort to show them how to use the greenways in Shelby Park and all over the place. Plus a huge aspect of the program includes mentoring from all the volunteers who come in to show them how to work on the bikes.”

Last year, Furbish says that ReCYCLE Your Cycle collected a ‘mindblowing’ 130 bicycles at the Earth Day Festival. With the help of generous Nashvillians, he’s hoping to equal or surpass that number this year.

Don’t forget that your bike donations to Oasis Center are tax-deductible and that experts will be on hand to help estimate the value of your donation.

Furbish plans to be at the festival all day. Look for the ReCYCLE Your Cycle program in the same tent as Walk Bike Nashville (which will apparently be providing valet bike parking for attendees.

As someone involved with helping at-risk children explore the city by bike, what does Furbish think of Nashville’s bike-infrastructure. In comparison with other parts of the country, he still feels Nashville has a long way to go, but slowly but surely he sees the city on its way to becoming a lot more bicyclist-friendly.

If you want to help make Nashville a more bike-friendly town, Furbish says that there will be opportunities at the Festival to sign up to volunteer at future Walk Bike Nashville events.

And if you have the skills and interest to volunteer at the Oasis Center’s bike Workshop, just email Furbish at dfurbish@oasiscenter.org to get involved.

The Wild Cow @ Nashville Earth Day Festival!

When you’re attending the Nashville Earth Day Festival on April 17, keep a lookout for The Wild Cow.

Don't worry - we're not talking about some enraged bovine, but rather East Nashville's favorite new vegetarian and vegan-friendly all-natural restaurant that will be dishing out tasty wraps, soups and natural sodas to Festival attendees.

(If you do get a soup, expect your spoon to be made from biodegradable corn-based material!)

In case you're curious about the difference between vegetarians and vegans, vegetarians don't eat meat, but they do still chow down on animal products such as cheese and eggs. Vegans try to avoid animal products altogether.

All the dishes on The Wild Cow's menu are compatible with vegan diets. If you see cheese listed on the menu, it's actually soy-based 'vegan cheese' -- although the restaurant does give non-vegan customers the option of choosing dairy cheese from free-range Organic Valley cows.

Since The Wild Cow opened on Eastland Avenue in December 2009, Nashvillians of all persuasions have been praising everything from the Vegan Philly "Cheesesteak" (made with seitan) to the Portabella Sandwich (all dressed up to tantalize your taste buds with homemade tahini dressing and roasted red pepper). Folks with gluten allergies also have lots of options on The Wild Cow's extensive gluten-free menu.

What's the connection between The Wild Cow and Earth Day? Melanie Cochran who co-owns The Wild Cow with her husband John says that people should realize the connection between being animal-friendly and being earth-friendly. "Whether you eat meat or you're vegetarian, we'd like people to think about where they get their food and where it comes from."

Before opening The Wild Cow, Melanie worked on a documentary about the pollution caused by so-called 'factory farms' - jumbo-size operations that raise animals like chickens, pigs and cows to feed America's meat cravings. She says that factory farms are a main cause of water pollution in America and that people who live near factory farms can have respiratory problems from the air pollution that the factory farms emit.

Meat-eaters are certainly welcome at The Wild Cow. In fact, Melanie estimates that at least half of her customers are meat-eaters who just enjoy eating a healthy, vegetable-based meal from time to time. But she does point out that from an environmental perspective raising animals for food is not a very efficient use of land.

"The amount of water and land required to raise farm animals is incredible," she says. "And we don't get nearly as much food from those animals compared to the food we could get from just raising crops on the land. To feed a cow for years and then just get a few meals out of it, well it's not a very good return on the land."

As you can guess, environmentally-friendly practices are big priorities at The Wild Cow. Even all the restaurant's cleaning-products are cruelty-free, meaning they are not tested on animals.

If you've ever been curious about what vegan food tastes like, just saunter on over to The Wild Cow booth at the Nashville Earth Day Festival and give it a try. It may sound tough to be vegan, but Melanie says that it was actually easier than she expected for she and her husband to make the switch from vegetarian to vegan a couple of years ago. "If you are passionate about the reasons to eat vegan, then it becomes pretty easy," she says. "We feel like we are living in sync with our ideals."

As for The Wild Cow's participation in the Earth Day Festival, Melanie says that the restaurant is honored to be participating in the event. "We're glad that the organizers saw that vegetarian food should be considered earth-friendly," she says. "We hope to continue to participate year after year and hope that people attending the festival will appreciate having some vegan food options."

Vendor details -

The Wild Cow, 1896 Eastland Avenue, Nashville, TN 37206. 615-262-2717

Just the Facts...

Welcome to the Nashville Earth Day Blog!

There's just one month to go until the big April 17th Nashville Earth Day Festival celebrations at Centennial Park.

The park seems like a fitting place to celebrate one of Earth Day's core issues of Sustainable Development considering that Centennial marked the beginning of Nashville's public park system.

Here's what you need to know about the Nashville Earth Day Festival -

- The event will be held rain or shine in Centennial Park on West End Avenue in Nashville

- Festivities will take place from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m.

- Admission is free!

- The festival will include displays from community groups, environmental organizations, farmers, eco-friendly businesses and government agencies.

- There will be live music all day long. This is Nashville after all!

- This will be a family-friendly event including entertainment, children's activities, educational programs and even a scavenger hunt :)

- Look for the Merchant Village where you can help the planet while also helping small businesses by buying eco-friendly products directly from the entrepreneurs who make them.

- Many kinds of food and drink will be available for purchase.

- There will be lots of recycling opportunities.

Want to get involved in the fun? Volunteers are needed! Help for at least two hours and you'll walk away with a free Nashville Earth Day Festival t-shirt.

Stay tuned for more updates between now and the big day. We'll be posting more information on the Festival, on Earth Day and environmental news here in Music City.

Have any questions about the event? Drop us a line and we'll do our best to get you the answers.

Look forward to seeing you at Nashville Earth Day Festival 2010. Come out and help us make this year's event the best ever!!