Earth Day is being observed this weekend. Pensacola’s annual Earth Day Celebration is set for tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Bayview Park. And, this month’s Gallery Night event will feature an Earth Day theme.
"You know what we decided to do with Gallery Night is to spend each month 'theming' it, and this was just perfect with Gallery Night being one day from Earth Day," said Pensacola businessman Joe Abston, who's a volunteer member of the Gallery Night board.
"You know a lot of companies, a lot of non-profits that are earth centric, renewable centric, everything from Gulf Power to SunFarm (Energy), and even Starbucks is coming down with their 'Grounds for Gardens. So we're really kind of focusing our interests on this Gallery Night to things we can do on the small parts and large parts of how we can help out the environment."
A significant part of Gallery Night for this month (April) is an Electric Vehicle Show, that is expected to be the largest all electric vehicle car show in the Panhandle. The Florida Tesla Club is sending some cars and the Pensacola area (Northwest Florida) EV (Electric Vehicle) Club will be represented.
"And, we're calling out to people in the general public who drive and love their all electric vehicle to come out show it and tell the story. Tell the people why you've chosen to live this way," said Abston, noting that electric cars have made huge leaps forward in the last few years.
Abston is owner of two downtown Pensacola restaurants, Hopjacks and Tin Cow, and says he's a proponent of clean, renewable and sustainable practices both in his business and personal life.
"All of our restaurants have gone to canned beers, canned drinks, basically it's a lot more recyclable. Everything from recycling office products and personally to driving a hybrid car," Abston said. "You know, I just feel it's all of our duty to play the part that we can to make the changes and adaptions that we can."
Just for this Earth Day edition of Gallery Night, Abston plans a push in his restaurants to 'skip the straw." He says straws are one-time use products, where hundreds of thousands of them go into the trash each year. "We're pushing for Gallery Night that if you want a straw ask for it. We're gonna try it out just for that night and see how many we could save."
Gallery Night begins at 5:00 this evening in downtown Pensacola. For more information visit the Gallery Night website and on the Gallery Night Facebook page.
Also, a reminder the Earth Day Pensacola Celebration is tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Bayview Park, 2001 E. Lloyd St. The annual Earth Day celebration in Fort Walton Beach is next Saturday, April 28 at Liza Jackson Park on Miracle Strip Pkwy.
