Earth Day 2022
INVEST IN OUR PLANET
Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
FRIENDS OF BAHIA HONDA EARTH DAY AUCTION
Check this out!! It’s time for the annual Friends of Bahia Honda State Park Earth Day auction. This year, like last, we will be conducting the auction online from April 1 to April 16th. The list of items has grown and the retail value has tripled.
Be a part of the best of the what the Keys has to offer and support a great cause. Last year due to everyone’s generous bids and donations the Friends raised 98% of the retail value of the donations. This year we hope to match that and more than double the proceeds.
Bidding is tons of fun and the competition is fierce “haha”. Check out all the items
Here are a few samples of what we are offering this year:
- Have you ever wanted to check out the exclusive Little Palm Island – we are auctioning off two nights for use this summer.
- What about a custom t-shirt quilt made from all your favorite Keys hang-outs.
- Maybe you would like an inflatable stand up paddle board from West Marine.
- You can be assured that a gift card from one of your favorite restaurants is up for bid.
- Fishing trips, tiki boats, art work, sailing trips, gift baskets and much much more are available.
- Entertainment basket
- Sky diving … if you dare!
The FIRST Earth Day
Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
Let’s take a look at the last half-century of mobilization for action:
ORIGINS OF EARTH DAY
In the decades leading up to the first Earth Day, Americans were consuming vast amounts of leaded gas through massive and inefficient automobiles. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of the consequences from either the law or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Until this point, mainstream America remained largely oblivious to environmental concerns and how a polluted environment threatens human health.
However, the stage was set for change with the publication of Rachel Carson’s New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries as it raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and the inextricable links between pollution and public health.
Earth Day 1970 would come to provide a voice to this emerging environmental consciousness, and putting environmental concerns on the front page.
THE IDEA FOR THE FIRST EARTH DAY
Senator Gaylord Nelson, the junior senator from Wisconsin, had long been concerned about the deteriorating environment in the United States. Then in January 1969, he and many others witnessed the ravages of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, Senator Nelson wanted to infuse the energy of student anti-war protests with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a teach-in on college campuses to the national media, and persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair. They recruited Denis Hayes, a young activist, to organize the campus teach-ins and they choose April 22, a weekday falling between Spring Break and Final Exams, to maximize the greatest student participation.
Experience feel-good shopping
Shop at smile.amazon.com and choose The Friends of Bahia Honda State Park as your charitable organization, there is no cost to you.
Same products, same prices, same service.
Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to us.
