You are invited to come out on Saturday, April 20 from 12-3 p.m. to celebrate the second Annual Earth Day Town Hall event in Padgett Park at 810 JD Miller Road, Santa Rosa Beach. This year the event is even bigger, with many more activities planned for children, and demos, displays and talks about how to protect our environment and Communities.
This year’s Earth Day theme is Planet versus Plastics, and we will have many ways for you to minimize or eliminate single-use plastics.
Our featured speaker is Michael Beedie, Senior Manager of Government Affairs for Waste Management, with news about their new state-of-the-art single stream Recycling Facility opening soon in Fort Walton Beach. This facility will be able to process recycling across our region. We are excited to host their announcement of curbside recycling in Walton County!
We are partnering again with our friends at Cultivate Community Gardens. They will have the Garden open for tours and will provide information about the Community Garden at Padgett Park. Also, the Choctawhatchee Bay Estuary Coalition will return with their interactive display about protecting our Bay and Outstanding Florida Waters.
This year we are being joined by the Choctawhatchee Audubon Society. They have some exciting interactive displays planned for adults and children that will allow bird identification by sight and sound.
Also new this year, the Walton County Library “Words on Wheels” Bookmobile will be on site. In addition to checking out their books, there will be make-and-take projects around the theme of Earth Day.
We are excited to hear presentations from the Master Gardeners on Florida-Friendly Landscapes and learn tips about what gardeners can do to deal with our area’s soil composition.
There will be demos about reducing food and packaging waste, including recipes and reuseable products. And we are happy to announce that because of generous donations from Fresh Market, WalMart, Whole Foods and Lowe’s, we will give away reuseable shopping bags to everyone who attends the event. Throughout the event there will be other cool give-aways like seedlings, reuseable stainless straws, a beautiful hand quilted table runner, and more.
The Second Annual Earth Day Town Hall is hosted by the Democratic Environmental Caucus of Walton County. Our focus has been on recycling, partnering with Walton County Solid Waste Department at Amnesty Day and creating a Recycling Flyer with locations to recycle items like glass, light bulbs and rechargeable batteries. You can download a copy here: https://bit.ly/RecycleWalton
Our next project is to work on passing a tree ordinance in Walton County. If you want to join these efforts, but are unable to attend the event, please send an email to: WaltonEnvironmenetalists@gmail.com.
Co-hosting with us this year is the Walton County Democratic Women’s Club. They have a tradition of working to protect our environment and beaches, and sharing information that connects interested parties. You can find updates about Environmentally friendly events at their website: https://waltoncountydwc.org/environmental-news
Author: Sowal Editor
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