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 17th 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.
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