I really wanted to write a post as soon as I got home from this event yesterday. Instead I got swept up into going to my favorite Chinese restaurant, watching the U.S. play for the World Cup, eating amazing spaghetti dinner, and watching The Count of Monte Christo for the first time (amazing!). I suppose it’s a fair trade off though . I would have liked to get those initial feelings of goodness out into words, but I did take them with me throughout my lovely day.

The “Hands Across the Sand” event was truly a great event to be apart of. Andrew and I woke up early to prepare for our trip to New Smryna Beach and it couldn’t have been more beautiful outside. Hot, but beautiful. We decided to check out a part of the town we had never been to and stumbled upon an awesome city park along the beach. There were pavilions with the most spectacular views of the ocean and people all around enjoying each other’s company. We ate our packed lunch at one of these said pavilions and made our way to a restaurant where the participants were to meet.

As we were walking on the beach I became aware that it felt like it was about hundred and ten degrees out with NO wind and LOTS of humidity. No exaggeration! So we got to where we were suppose to be and it took us about ten minutes or so to find the people we were looking for. I felt like I was walking across the Sahara the entire time! We signed a petition, introduced ourselves, and got to walking around and talking with others who would be participating (after we found a safe haven of shade for a few minutes).

The coordinators began to direct people in position about ten minutes before we were to all be holding hands in a line. Now, you wouldn’t think holding hands in a straight line would be considered a difficult task for a group of adults, but you would be wrong. It took about fifteen minutes to get the line not all bunched up and broken and it seemed as though once we got it down, we looked around to find it was all over. In an instant, everyone went back to where they came from and the beach was scattered with people in the water, playing games, and laying out on their beach towels. You would have never guessed that only a few minutes before there was such a gathering as the Hands Across the Sand. It was pretty incredible.

Afterwards we spoke with more people who came out to support the message and they couldn’t be more inspiring. I always find great motivation talking to people who truly care and simply want to see our government do the same. It reminds me that the majority of the people in my country don’t agree with how our government is functioning. We don’t support their slow moving tactics to keep us from finding other energy sources. Having that knowledge of unity makes you feel so connected to everyone~ and that is a GREAT feeling. I definitely look forward to participating in the Hands Across the Sand event again and can’t wait to see how much it will grow by the next one.

In the meantime we do what we can to individually make a difference. Then those individual steps turn into a huge movement. Then great change will happen

Thank you for reading and thank you for caring.

~Kristie

Stay tuned for video footage and photos from this awesome event!