sundance

E-town Radio Works to Save the Environment

Sundance Channel became aware of the work of E-town when they placed themselves on the Eco-mmunity Map and contacted us about being in the Greenzine. If you’d like to be featured in a future issue of the Greezine, drop us a line at mapadmin@eco-mmunitymail.com

E-town is a radio show production company whose radio show is syndicated on American radio stations from coast to coast. E-town specializes in entertaining and communicating with audiences using live music and engaging conversation. Each show they create has two well-known musical guests who play songs, do interviews and close out the show with a collaborative song performance. They also have a unique segment on each show called “E-chievement Awards”, which honors an outstanding person who has worked to improve the environmental and socially responsible conditions in the world. By showing an example of a person of excellence, E-town hopes to convince their listeners to believe in an individual’s power to effect positive changes in the world.

You can view their marker by searching the map for “etown” or by clicking here.

E-town hosts Nick Forster (Left) and Helen Forster (Right)

If you are interested in learning more about E-town, or want to hear some podcasts [www.etown.org], interviews and photo galleries, then check out their website [www.etown.org].

Below, we list four past E-chievement Award [www.etown.org] Winners. These are all people of outstanding accomplishment, and are all pioneers in their respective fields.

Erika Vohman Winning Her E-chievement Award

Erika Vohman, Maya Nut Program:

Erika started this nonprofit in 2001. It uses the “Maya Nut,” an abundant tropical rainforest food, and a training program, to help rural Central American communities solve problems of deforestation, poverty, malnutrition, and unemployment. The nut is a nutritious, abundant and easy to harvest native tree-seed. They teach women to produce food, earn income and raise healthy families without destroying the environment. Production requires no forest clearing, irrigation, pesticides, nor fertilizers. Over 2,000 women have been instructed, over 50,000 trees have been planted, and use of the nut has resulted in increased infant birth weights, and reduction of maternal and childhood anemia.

Website [www.theequilibriumfund.org]

Sara Pines, Friendship Donations Network:

Sara founded this nonprofit, all-volunteer grassroots food gleaning and rescue organization in 1992. Each week they obtain from grocers and bakeries nutritious perishable and nonperishable food and other perfectly good and usable products destined for disposal and deliver it free of charge to food banks and pantries. Now 71, Sara still volunteers at least 20 hours a week. Since 1992, she and hundreds of volunteers have rescued and diverted over 11 million pounds of food from landfills.

Website [www.friendshipdonations.baka.com]

Gershon Cohen, Responsible Cruising in Alaska:

Gershon is a biologist and environmental policy expert. He’s also a 25-year resident of Alaska, which hosts over a million cruise ship visitors each year. Gershon became aware of cruise industry legal loopholes, including a waste dumping exemption. In response, he and a very diverse group of citizens came together to support a successful ballot measure that has set new environmental and economic standards for cruise industry practices and responsibilities. Their effort is becoming a model of reform for other concerned coastal communities all over the world.

Website [www.responsiblecruising.org]

Carrie Little, Mother Earth Farm:

Carrie is an organic farmer. She co-founded the nonprofit Mother Earth Farm in 2000 to supply healthy organic produce and a stable source of food to the Emergency Food Network (EFN). EFN is the sole nonprofit food distribution center in Pierce County. Located in the fertile Puyallup area of Washington State, this 8-acre organic farm produces about 125,000 pounds of produce each growing season. The farm relies on the year-round help about 1,400 volunteers each year, including women from a correctional facility, civic groups and schools. Since beginning, they have produced nearly 650,000 pounds of produce, feeding nearly a half million hungry people.

Website [www.efoodnet.org]

James Burgett, Alameda Country Computer Resource Center:

James founded this nonprofit in 1994. Since then, he and his team have repaired tens of thousands of broken or discarded computers and donated them to schools, groups and individuals around the world. He also makes sure computers and other electronics he can’t fix are properly recycled. Over 1.5 million tons of equipment has been processed since beginning. James is a former drug addict and transient who found his sense of purpose in this effort. For his team, he engages folks outside the normal employment stream. James says they take things that are “broken,” – things deemed to no longer have value — to repurpose and refurbish them, which “applies to me and my staff, too.”

Website [www.accrc.org]

The musical performers who are featured in every E-town show have on some occasions also been advocates for environmental issues, here is a small list of these green musicians.

Mavis Staples – from singing with her family group The Staple Singers starting in 1950, she’s always been a strong proponent of the civil rights movement and social justice.

KT Tunstall – Not only was she part of the global Live Earth performances, but she had 6,000 trees planted to offset her 1st album and plans on donating a portion of the profits from her new album (Drastic Fantastic) towards investing in renewable energy sources in developing countries.

James Taylor – Always visibly active in environmental and progressive causes, in October 2004 Taylor joined the “Vote for Change” tour playing a series of concerts in America swing states.

Guster – What more could they do? They tour in a biodiesel bus, collected 2 tons of food on their Spring tour to donate to food banks and gave fans an option of adding 15 cents to their ticket prices with the money going to Tickets Plant Trees Program.

Michael Franti & Spearhead – Along with creating a free music and arts festival dedicated to social justice, non violence, coexistence and environmental sustainability, Franti has written a children’s book to teach kids what they can do to help the world become a better place.

For a complete listing of the many musicians that have performed for E-town, check out this webpage [www.etown.org].