Hands Across the Sand coming to Santa Rosa Beach Aug. 4

July 1, 2012

More than 400 people showed their support for Hands Across The Sand in Seaside, Fla. Lori Ceier/Walton Outdoors

The global movement “Hands Across the Sand” will be gathering at Noon on Aug. 4 to bring awareness of the dangers of offshore drilling. Locally, the gathering will be at 12 Noon along the beach in Seaside and at Ed Walline Park at the south end of CR393 in Santa Rosa Beach. Participants will gather along the beach, form a line and join hands for 15 minutes.

Local businessman Dave Rauschkolb started the movement in 2009. 10,000 Floridians representing 60 towns and cities and over 90 beaches joined hands to protest the efforts by the Florida Legislature and the US Congress to lift the ban on oil drilling in the near and off shores of Florida. Florida’s Hands Across The Sand event was the largest gathering in Florida’s history united against expanding oil drilling into Florida’s waters.

On June 26, 2010, in response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Hands Across the Sand went global. The event was announced and it became the largest gathering of people in the history of the world united against expanding offshore oil drilling and championing clean energy and renewables. Over 1000 events were held world wide. Events took place in all 50 states, and in 42 countries outside the U.S.

To learn more, go to: www.handsacrossthesand.org/

Hands Across The Sand from Walton Outdoors on Vimeo.