The Great Earth Day Bike Parade!

Written for the Portland Green Streets Newsletter

Get out on your bike in a fun atmosphere of celebration!

In honor of Earth Day, Green Streets is organizing a Great Bike Parade for Sunday, April 27th, from 1-2 pm (in conjunction with the Bicycle Coalition of Maine’s Great Bike Swap and the Portland Bicycle Commuter Meetup).

• When: Sunday, April 27 – Registration at 12:30 pm at Swap entrance; Parade Starts at 1pm
• Where: USM Sullivan Gym, 21 Falmouth Street, Portland
• Cost: FREE!
• Ride length: 4.1 miles, Check out this map of the route
• Bike Helmets Required
• Safe & Smart Bike Driving Reminders – including quick helmet fit and bike check

Who Should Come

This is a fun event for all ages and abilities! The parade will run in a loop from the Swap at USM’s Sullivan Gym, down to and around the Back Cove Trail, and then return to the Swap (complete with police escort! . Check out this map of the route.

Please bring your friends, family, and bikes & helmets (and/or look for a bike & helmet at the Swap!) – and join us! (And feel free to use any other human-powered vehicle (tricycle, wheel-chair, pedicab, etc)! Come celebrate the most efficient form of transportation humans have ever created!

Decorate Your Bike!

If you’d like, go ahead and have some fun decorating your bike, and/or posting it with signs that promote bike riding (and we’ll have a bike decorating station at the Swap, too!) There will be prizes for riders: Youngest Rider, Eldest Rider, Most Original Decorated Bike, Most Earth Day-Related Decorated Bike, and Most Flamboyant Decorated Bike. So go wild with the decorating!

Thank You

Portland Friends Meeting Teens Putting up Signs Around Back Cove

This event was the brainchild of City Councilor Kevin Donoghue, and we thank Kevin and the City of Portland for helping make it all possible.  We give special thanks to our Great Bike Parade Committee members – amazing volunteers Amanda Blaine, Brianna Courneya McCabe, and Mary Anne Higgins! Thanks also to the middle and high schoolers at Portland Friends Meeting and many other individuals for signing up to volunteer! And thanks to the Sunrise Guide, Healthy Portland, Let’s Go , the Maine Women’s Fund, and Office Supply for donations!

Let your community know about the Bike Parade – download and post this Earth Day Bike Parade Poster!