From Ponce De Leon to the Present: Why Florida Needs Water State Warriors Now More Than Ever
Florida has been attracting residents since the Native Americans arrived 14,000 years ago and attracting tourists since Juan Ponce De Leon landed on the beach in 1513. Fast forward a couple hundred years to the invention of the air conditioner in the 50’s that certainly continued putting Florida on the map. Or how about Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio’s highly publicized romantic stroll on a Florida beach in 1961? And now a Backstreet Boy is calling a beautiful Florida beach “home” - quite literally ((insert link)).
Just visiting or calling Florida home? Are you just here for a good time? Is it the sunshine that keeps you here or coming back for more? Our state is more than just sunshine and actually New Mexico has more of it than us. (insert link about why we are water state). So then why aren’t you in “The Land of Enchantment” vacationing or calling it home?
We can bet, no matter why you are here or for how long, it’s our waters that make the difference! You are either one of our 23,500,000 locals or one of the 140,000,000 tourists that dive into our state every year. The cumulative effects of the masses enjoying our waters can’t be ignored.
There’s a popular term “death by a thousand cuts”. In Florida it’s not a thousand cuts but hundreds of millions of splashes, footprints, paddles, fishing, anchorings, and social media taggings! All of that makes us Florida-loving-humans freaking warriors. But there are good warriors and then there are the warriors that really don’t care.
Our Florida waters, the best on the planet, need everyone to pitch in. They need locals AND tourists to be part of something bigger. You know, do more….Be a Water State Warrior!
Our team actually just connected with some (good) warriors. Let us introduce you to an environmental nonprofit made up of energetic, just-get-wet, touch-trash, Florida-loving-and-respecting individuals - the Clean Water Coalition ((website link))! We enjoyed helping them plan and supporting their big river clean up here in North Florida. Their whole crew drove up from Orlando to clean up a portion of the Santa Fe River, in an area where the magical spring-fed Ichetucknee River flows into it. As you can imagine, such a beautiful place attracts a lot of human warriors of all types!
And maybe someone send this to Mr. Brian Littrell - that famous Backstreet Boy to also put some energy into protecting the crystal-blue waters not just the sand he calls home!