How it all began

As my 32nd birthday approached I starting looking for ways I could make my birthday meaningful by contributing to the relief efforts of the BP oil disaster. I went to 350.org and there I found a link to the Hands Across the Sand website, which was calling for people to gather peacefully to join hands on June 26th, 2010 with a clear message: NO to offshore drilling, YES to clean and renewable energy!

At the time there were only 4 states that were organizing a Hands event. I decided to organize an event here in Salt Lake City, UT and signed up.

Several days later, Salt Lake City had its own oil disaster when a Chevron pipeline broke spewing an estimated 20,000 gallons of oil into the Red Butte Creek, which made its way to our beloved Liberty Park and continued down to reach the Jordan River which runs into the Great Salt Lake.

I emailed the founder of Hands Across the Sand, David Rauschkolb and informed him of our own oil disaster and we moved the location of the Utah event to Liberty Park.

With less than two weeks left till June 26th...I began to push hard to get the ball rolling. With the help of some wonderful volunteers, we were a GO with a stellar line-up of presenters, such as Seth Walker: neo-beat poet, Tim DeChristopher: climate activist, Brian Moench: Physicians for a Healthy Environment, Peter Hayes: Citizens Response Committee, and Alyssa Kay: local resident affected by the Chevron oil disaster. Plus several sponsors - Ibean Inspired, Urban Village Cooperative, Sustain Utah, Students Revolutionary Union of UVU.

As organizers for Hands Across the Sand began to pour in from all over the world...we began discussing NEXT STEPS. A pledge for reducing our use of oil and fossil fuel by 10% was suggested. Personally, I do not know what 10% looks like and so I suggested a simpler, easier to understand number and thus was born the 50% NOW pledge!!

Oh and the Hands Across the Sand event? We had over 150 participants and it was AMAZING!!