Tour Host:

Walton County Extension Office

"It's beautiful. It's disturbing. It's inspiring."

"This is an enlightening exhibit that I promise you will enjoy and learn some things that will change your life in terms of thinking about trash and plastic. It's also funny and colorful. This is must see wherever she goes with it. All ages will enjoy. All ages can make a difference. Don't miss it!"

Pop-Up Show Visitors

Walton County

January 18 - 28, 2017

It seemed so appropriate for a County Extension Office to be the first host on the Tour since 4-H had such an important role in making me the type of person who would take on a Tour like this! Check out my blog 'Make the Best Better'.

Special thanks to Lara Tiu, UF/IFAS/Sea Grant Walton, for making this first Tour stop so successful - and so fun! I loved the diversity of venues and audiences - from college and high school students on their campuses to the Big Top at Florida Chautauqua. The perfect host, she was with me every step of the way - from loading and unloading the trailer, setting up the exhibits and cheering me on during presentations, to documenting the Tour with some great photographs. Thank you!

And such a special place!

Walton County is one of the five richest biodiversity hotspots in North America; ecosystems include the Choctawhatchee River and Bay, many spring-fed creeks and streams, extremely rare coastal dune lakes and the 'singing sand' beaches made from quartz crystals washed down from the Apalachicola mountains.

In only ten days, more than 400 people participated in the Tour activities; 83 made a written commitment to adopt a new habit that will reduce trash in our oceans.

Not just one, but two Pop Up Shows! Dialogue with high school students. A presentation at the local college. Two potential new partnerships in Tour sites down the road. The first Catch of the Day collaborative art project created with the Walton County 4-H Masterpiece Art Club.

And it was only the beginning!

Why is making a commitment important?

Talking with students at Walton Beach High School.

"Problems, solutions and commitments. These were the themes of today's Science Seminar where guest speaker Bette Booth educated us on the problems with trash in our oceans and several ways we can commit to eliminating harmful waste. A special thank you to Bette and all that attended today's talk!"

Dana Stephens

Director, Mattie M. Kelly Environmental Institute

Presenting at the prestigious Mattie M. Kelly Environmental Institute Seminar, Northwestern Florida State College. More than 70 people braved a rainy inauguration day to attend.

Creating the first Catch of the Day collaborative art piece with the Walton County 4-H Masterpiece Art Club.

"Bette Booth makes amazing art out of beach trash. With her assistance, our club made their very own piece of artwork which , along with Bette's, will be on display at Camp Conservation next weekend. Bette gave us several tips on how we can help reduce trash in our oceans (such as using paper straws and re-usable shopping bags). What will YOU do to help."

Jena Brooks

4-H Youth Development Agent

UF/IFAS Walton County Extension

Splash Trash Mini-Pop Up Show at the Annual 4-H Pancake Breakfast and Master Gardener Tree sale.

I love spending time with curious kids like this one.

Splash Trash Pop Up Show at the Florida Chautauqua Assembly (Camp Conservation).

The first complete set up of the Pop-up Show on the Tour and what a totally different installation!

It looked great under the Chautaugua 'Big Top' even though the tables sloped down the hill a little!

Temperatures in the high 50's made these Florida kids - and me - bundle up. But we had a lot of fun, and learned a lot, anyway!

“It was a great pleasure to host the Splash Trash Tour in Walton and Okaloosa counties in the Florida Panhandle. Due to the flexible nature of the display and accompanying lectures, we had the opportunity to reach a multitude of audiences from high schoolers, 4-Her’s, college students, environmentalists and the general public at several different venues.

People found the display to be interesting, informative, beautiful, at times disturbing, but most of all inspirational; driving a commitment to change behavior.

My wish is that we could host the Splash Trash Tour year-round to continue to bring attention to this important issue.”

Dr. Laura Tiu

Splash Trash Tour Coordinator

University of Florida Marine Science Agent - UF/IFAS/Sea Grant

SplashTrash Intl. by SplashTrash Intl. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Please give credit to SplashTrash Intl., the SplashTrash Tour, Bette Booth, www.splashtrash.org