Founder's Statement
Malibu, California
JUNE 26, 2026
Three guys walk into a bar and come up with an idea to help counter the effects of climate change.
Some years past, Revel had been invited by Richard Faith to perform in his annual 'Hobos Thanksgiving' benefit project and was performing at GS Steamers Bar and Grill. The venue was the Broadwell-owned Clarion Hotel and Suites Riverfront on East First Street in Oswego. It might sound like a joke, but that’s exactly how George Broadwell, Gary Revel and Richard Faith came up with the idea of working together on the mission of Mother Nature Festival Live Inc.
Revel told Richard and George about the project to stop global warming and to help Mother Nature. Revel said Monday via a Zoom call. “That’s where Mother Nature Festival Live Inc. got its start."
Although the environmental concerns held by each of them did not begin on this day, their earlier motivations will be explained as their individual stories unfold. What brought the three together for the first time was a simple act of invitation: Richard Faith had asked Gary Revel to come to Oswego to sing and play guitar for a fundraiser.
For seventeen years, Richard had organized an annual November event known as the Hobos Thanksgiving. Alongside this long‑running tradition, he had also been developing an idea to help farmers by creating composting systems and producing a bio‑fertilizer. More about that vision appears in the Executive Director’s Statement below. To understand how the fullness and breadth of the story we must go back to a day in 1970s.
Revel had lived in Hollywood/Los Angeles from 1969 through most of 1972, during a period when the city was struggling with some of the worst air pollution in the nation. One day, while visiting downtown Los Angeles for the first time, he realized he could not clearly see a traffic light just two blocks away. The smog and floating particles were so dense that the city’s colors and contours seemed to dissolve into the haze. In that moment, he felt deeply that this was not what God intended for His creation — that something was profoundly out of balance.
Not long after, his younger brother, Cecil Ray Fillingame Jr., brought him a set of lyrics about “Mother Nature” and the need to help her heal. The connection was immediate. Revel recognized in those words the same truth he had witnessed in downtown Los Angeles: the Earth was suffering, and humanity had a responsibility to respond. Together, in 1972, they co‑wrote the song “Mother Nature,” an early artistic expression of environmental concern at a time when the modern climate movement had barely begun.
This experience — the smog‑choked streets of Los Angeles, the spiritual realization of environmental harm, and the creation of a song calling for stewardship — became the foundation of Revel’s lifelong commitment to protecting the planet. It also placed him at the very front edge of the environmental awakening that would later grow into a global movement.
Revel’s commitment to environmental protection stretches back nearly half a century. In the 1970s, with his early artistic call to recognize humanity’s responsibility to safeguard the planet. At a time when environmental awareness was only beginning to enter the national conversation, Revel’s work reflected a forward‑looking concern for the Earth and the generations to come.
More than a decade later, that same spirit of environmental responsibility resurfaced in Southern California, where Leslie Riggs and Patricia McCune helped lead the modern revival of the American Green Cross. Founded in Irvine, California, this late‑1980s movement sought to build a grassroots, community‑driven environmental network focused on preparedness, education, and local action. Their work echoed the same themes Revel had championed years earlier — that protecting the planet requires both public awareness and collective effort.
Together, these milestones illustrate a continuous, intergenerational commitment to environmental stewardship. Revel’s early artistic advocacy and the later organizational leadership of Riggs and McCune form part of the same enduring movement: a sustained effort to awaken society to the urgent need for environmental responsibility and global cooperation.
Jump forward to Oswego where Richard Faith held a benefit concert at Curtis Manor in Oswego in April 2022. The concert featured performances from local favorites Frostbit Blue among others.
Faith is directing the community engagement committee to plan events to help spread awareness of global warming.
Faith has also written a children’s book called “Bee Scared,” a book about disappearing bee colonies. The book has been translated into French and Swahili, and a Spanish version is on the way." Faith said.
From Oswego County News Now, Paladium Times and Valley News
To read the article in the newspaper-online click here.
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A Legacy of Environmental Leadership, Renewed for a New Generation
Mother Nature Festival Live Inc. was founded with a single, urgent mission: Stop Global Warming. Gary Revel said, "Our work stands on the belief that protecting the planet is not merely a scientific necessity, but a moral responsibility shared across generations."
How We Relate Al Gore and Mother Nature Festival Live Inc. and Environmental Issues
Revel co‑wrote the song Mother Nature with his younger brother, Cecil Ray Fillingame Jr., at a time when environmental awareness was still emerging in American culture. ThAle song was later selected by producer Johnny Erdelyan for recording at Acuff‑Rose Music Publishing in Nashville, with Roy Acuff and Wesley Rose supporting its inclusion in my early catalog. A release of the song on the single record, 'Mother Nature' in the 1970s would establish it as a building block for modern times environmental concern. and Environmental Issues
Revel co‑wrote the song Mother Nature with his younger brother, Cecil Ray Fillingame Jr., at a time when environmental awareness was still emerging in American culture. ThAle song was later selected by producer Johnny Erdelyan for recording at Acuff‑Rose Music Publishing in Nashville,
During those same years, another young man, Al Gore, was also living in Nashville. He was beginning his intellectual journey that would later make him one of the world’s most recognized environmental advocates. While there is no way to know whether he ever heard the song, Mother Nature, or heard of it, the timing is notable. Nashville in the early 1970s was a crossroads of creative and social ideas, and Mother Nature was part of that cultural landscape.
What can be said with certainty is that the environmental concerns expressed in the song predated the national climate conversation by many years. It stands as an early artistic reflection of the same issues that would later become central to Gore’s public work and to the global movement to protect our planet.
There can be no argument that our organization is part of a much larger and longer story—one shaped by the courage and dedication of environmental leaders who carried this cause long before climate change and global warming became a major concern and global headline. Among those leaders is Patricia McCune, whose early activism helped revive the American Green Cross in the late 1980s, during a pivotal moment in the modern environmental movement. It is well noted that Gary Revel, Al Gore, and Patricia McCune lived and worked in Nashville, Tennessee during those 1970s. It is also noted, when asked, they don't remember meeting during those years. However, that they have bcome giants in the overall history of environmental concern and problem solving is remarkable.
At a time when few were sounding the alarm, Patricia worked to build a grassroots network focused on community preparedness, environmental education, and public engagement. Her leadership contributed to a wave of environmental awareness that would later intersect with global efforts inspired by figures such as Mikhail Gorbachev and the rise of Green Cross International.
Today, Patricia McCune continues her commitment as an Independent Fund Raiser and supporter of Mother Nature Festival Live Inc. Her involvement represents more than personal dedication—it symbolizes the continuity of a movement to make our home planet Earth a better place for all. At a time when few were sounding the alarm, Patricia worked to build a grassroots network focused on community preparedness, environmental education, and public engagement. Her leadership contributed to a wave of envirohat has endured for decades. Her presence within our organization affirms that the fight to protect the Earth is not new, not fleeting, and not forgotten. It is a living legacy carried forward by those who refuse to let the cause fade.
Mother Nature Festival Live Inc. honors Patricia McCune for her vision, her leadership, and her enduring belief that ordinary people, united in purpose, can change the course of history. Her story strengthens our mission and reminds us that we are part of a larger, ongoing effort to help stop global warming.
A Remarkable Convergence in 1970s Nashville
While Los Angeles or New York might produce countless overlapping stories, Nashville in the early 1970s was a much smaller city — a place where creative, political, and civic circles often intersected. It is within this close‑knit environment that an unusual historical convergence occurred.
During these years, Gary Revel, Patricia McCune, and Al Gore were all living and working in Nashville, each beginning a journey that would later place them among the voices concerned with environmental protection. They do not recall meeting during that time, yet the overlap is striking. Revel was writing and recording Mother Nature after witnessing the smog of Los Angeles; Gore was beginning the intellectual path that would lead him to global environmental advocacy; and McCune was entering the world of public service and community engagement that would later connect her to grassroots environmental leadership.
In 1970, Patricia McCune worked on the U.S. Senate re‑election campaign of Al Gore Sr., where she met the Senator, his wife Pauline, and their daughter Nancy. Although she also encountered a young Al Gore Jr., he was deeply involved in the campaign and no lasting acquaintance formed. This early connection placed McCune within the Gore family’s political circle at a time when national conversations about the environment were only beginning to emerge.
McCune and Gore Jr. continued in Nashville throughout the 1970s. At the same time, Gary Revel was also in Nashville, writing and recording music — including the 1972 song Mother Nature, inspired by his firsthand experience with severe air pollution in Los Angeles. Although none of them collaborated or formed personal relationships during that period, each was independently developing the environmental concerns that would later define their work.
In a large city such overlaps might go unnoticed, but in a mid‑sized Nashville of the 1970s, this convergence is striking. Three individuals — moving in different circles, pursuing different callings — were all being shaped by the same rising awareness that the Earth needed defenders. The seeds of environmental destiny were germinating in each of them, long before climate change became a global issue.
Today, their paths have diverged and re‑converged in unexpected ways. Patricia McCune’s support of Mother Nature Festival Live Inc., Revel’s lifelong environmental advocacy, and Gore’s global leadership all reflect a shared legacy that began quietly, in parallel, in the same city and the same era. Al Gore Jr. continues to lead his organization combatting Climate Change.
They were not collaborating, and they were not holding meetings about climate change. But in the same city, at the same moment in history, the seeds of environmental destiny were quietly taking root in each of them. Their later contributions — artistic, political, and organizational — reveal a shared awakening that began long before the world understood the scale of the environmental crisis.
In 1972, Revel co‑wrote Mother Nature with his younger brother, Cecil Ray Fillingame Jr., after witnessing firsthand the smog‑choked skies of downtown Los Angeles. At nearly the same time, a young Al Gore was beginning the intellectual journey in Nashville that would later make him one of the world’s most recognized environmental advocates. And in the following decade, Patricia McCune would help lead the revival of the American Green Cross, coming together in Rancho Mirage and Irvine, California. She tackled the advancing grassroots environmental action during a period when few were sounding the alarm.
None of them were holding meetings together. None were coordinating a shared mission. Yet all three were responding — in their own ways, in their own fields — to the same growing awareness that the Earth was in danger and needed defenders. Their early experiences became seeds of destiny, germinating quietly in their spirits long before the world understood the scale of the environmental crisis.
Today, their separate journeys have converged in a shared legacy of environmental concern and problem‑solving. Al Gore, Leslie Riggs, Patricia McCune, and Gary Revel work to bring stability to Climate Change and in the process stop global warming. Mother Nature Festival Live Inc. Gary Revel is continuing the work he began decades ago, a deeper truth is clear: the movement to protect the planet is larger than any one person, and its roots run farther back than most people realize.
Together, we continue the work.
Together, we carry the legacy forward.
Forbes Review of Bee Scared
The Forbes review of Bee Scared by James Conca, published on September 29, 2021, appears on the Forbes.com site under the James Conca author page. The review is titled “Teaching Our Young About Environmental Stewardship and Climate Change” and focuses on the children’s book’s role in raising awareness about the decline of honey bees and the importance of environmental responsibility. bing.com+1.
The Value of the Book, "Bee Scared", by Author: Richard Faith and Illustrator: Todd Hobin.
Bee Scared is the first in the Old Doc Turtle series, written by Richard Faith and illustrated by Todd Hobin. It tells the story of a Worker Scout Bee, who discovers that honey bee hives are closed, prompting concern from the Queen Bee and even Old Doc Turtle. The narrative uses rhyme and humor to engage young readers while subtly addressing the real-world issue of pollinator decline. Richard first gives all profits from the book, and its translations, as a chariable gift to Mother Nature Festival Live Inc.
Review focus
James Conca’s Forbes review highlights:
The book’s educational value in teaching children about environmental stewardship and climate change.
Its accessible, engaging style suitable for ages up to about 7.
The call to action at the end, encouraging readers to think about how they can help protect bees.
The visual design and cartoon-style illustrations that match the book’s theme. Goodreads+1.
Why it matters
The review positions Bee Scared as more than just a children’s adventure story — it’s a gateway to environmental awareness, using a fun, relatable plot to introduce complex ecological issues in a way that’s digestible for young audiences.
If you want to read the full Forbes review, you can access it directly via the James Conca Forbes page: Forbes review link. bing.com.
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