The marine sanctuary program submitted a grant requesting $250,000 to Pepsi’s Refresheverything online grant program at midnight (ET) on September 1st.  The Refresheverything grant program administrators will review the first 1,000  ideas submitted and those that are approved will be eligible for public online voting  during the month of October via the Refresheveryting website.  The title of the marine sanctuary grant is “Make The Gulf Snorkelicious!  Heal The Gulf With Beach Reefs” .

Look for a Vote Snorkelicious campaign to begin shortly before October.  Each person can vote daily during the month at www.refresheverything.com once the October grant voting cycle is opened.

The Environmental Committee for Pensacola Bay Area Impact 100 conducted a site visit with the Navarre Beach Marine Sanctuary Committee this morning  (Saturday August 14th).   Impact 100 is a group of 560 women in the Pensacola Bay Area, who with their financial contributions and effective management of an annual grant program, provide over $500,000 in funding to worthy charitable organization programs  in five categories.   Last year the Marine Sanctuary was a finalist in the environmental category.  We are again pursuing the grant opportunity in the Environmental category this year.

We were pleased to share with the Impact 100 members, the current status of our efforts to bring beach accessible reefs to Navarre Beach and the positive impact the program will have on our region.  Many thanks to the Impact 100 organization and the members who took time out of their weekend to visit us at Navarre Beach.   While there we provided program information, toured the reef locations, and answered questions about the program, our progress and plans.

After site visits have been conducted with the grant applicants, two finalists in each of five categories will be selected and announced.  Each finalist will make a presentation before the full Impact 100 organization at their annual meeting in the Fall.   During the meeting,  each of the five grants (one in each category) will be announced and awarded.    We are hopeful and optimistic about our application, and look forward to the announcement of the finalists.

The Pepsi Refresh Everything grant program has a brand new entrant…..US – or they will come September!

Our entry is Make The Gulf Snorkelicious!   Heal the Gulf With Beach Reefs and is prepared and saved in Pepsi’s online system awaiting the September 1 submission deadline.

Voting starts October 1st and continues through October.  All you have to do is visit our site at the  link above  and vote.   Note – the link won’t be active till September 1st.   You can vote every day in September.

Help us get the word out and ask your Facebook friends to become a fan.   We’ll notify you  here and on Facebook when voting begins.

Nancy Sandler, Co-Chair of the Navarre Beach Marine Sanctuary Committee and Mike Sandler also on the Marine Sanctuary Committee will make a presentation about the progress and plans of  Marine Sanctuary Program at the Navarre Library.    Mark your calendars for  Tuesday, July 27th at 5:30 pm.

The Sandler’s will present status and progress to date of the efforts to bring near shore reefs to Navarre Beach, upcoming events  involving the Sanctuary Committee and information on you can become involved and keep informed.

The public is invited to come and learn how we are helping to Make Navarre Snorkelicious!

Date:  Tuesday July 27th

Time: 5:30 PM

Where: Navarre Library –  8484 James M. Harrell Road, Navarre, FL 32566

Escambia County received word today from NOAA,  of a favorable ruling for the  snorekeling reef permits in the sound near the Fort Pickens gate and nearshore in the Gulf, just west of  Casino Beach.   This means  after the Army Corps of Engineers is officially notified of the ruling, that Federal Permits should be forthcoming.

This is GREAT NEWS for both Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.  Because of the favorable ruling, the way is paved for application of the same criteria and precedent  inthe permits being sought by the Marine Sanctuary.  We are one very large step closer to Making Navarre Snorkelicious!!

Another bit of good news is that the re survey of the Navarre Gulf Reef Site came back with no changes to the original survey.  This means no  information gathered for the Navarre Gulf side snorkeling reef permits will need to be altered, which should further help the speed of the permitting process.

The Marine Sanctuary Committee has selected Saturday October 16th, 2010  as  the date for the  2nd annual Run For The Reef 5k Race and 1 Mile Kid’s Fun Run.   Mark your calendars for this exciting event.  The course on Navarre Beach is one of the area favorites and the weather is perfect for it in the fall.

Last year’s inaugural race featured over 300 runners and raised over $8,000 for  the committee’s efforts to establish snorkeling and diving reefs at Navarre Beach.   There will be  awards in all age categories and door prizes and you won’t want to miss the great after party.

We look forward to welcoming back last years participants and plan to see a lot of new faces.   Look for details as the event planning kicks into gear.  We  also look forward to renewing with many of our sponsors from last year also that helped make the event successful.  Spread the word and help us Make Navarre Snorkelicious!!

A Reef Sponsorship Program is in the planning stages for the Marine Sanctuary that will allow businesses and individuals to contribute and be recognized on an individual contributor,  or  reef sponsorship,  reef site sponsorship basis.   The committee has  developed a tiered contributor/sponsorship  plan with multi level  recognition benefits in exchange for various levels of tax deductible donations.  We are working with the County on appropriate interpretive signage  and preparing designs for the committee and the county’s review.   The committee is striving to create an effective program that will help develop and sustain the reefs for years to come and provide lasting recognition to the people that have contributed to help Make Navarre Snorkelicious.  Stay tuned for more details as they develop.!

Planning for the 2nd Annual Run for the Reef is also beginning.  The committee will agree on a date soon and begin recruiting sponsors and volunteers.   This event was a huge success last year and we are looking to improve on last years turnout of over 300 participants.  Be part of the fun by participating, sponsoring or volunteering.

We’ve updated the Plans and Documents page with the current revision of the Marine Sanctuary Plan to bring it up to date with the reef design in the permit applications.  Also new are all permit documents for the Gulf and Sound Side Reef.

Check out these new additions to the site to see the official communications on the permitting and the up to date plan for the Navarre Beach Marine Sanctuary.

You can also see a historical record of all the committee meeting minutes there along with general information and links to pictures and drawings of the reefs and reef permit areas.

Fundraising:

Run for the Reef 5K

Our inaugural event was a huge success and we grossed as much as $8,000 and netted as much as $5,000. Still waiting on word if there are any more registration monies to be collected from the Active.com on line registration system. This was not only a financial success but everyone involved seemed genuinely pleased that it went off without a hitch and we had over 300 participants. Including all the participant, volunteer and sponsor shirts distributed, we have 400 Run for the Reef T-shirts out there circulating to remind folks of the program. Thanks to all the sponsors, volunteers, race committee members and most importantly participants that helped to make it a success.

Impact100 Grant

As you may know we were selected as one of two finalist in the Environmental category for the 2009 Pensacola Bay Area Impact 100 grant of $102,800. Approximately 250 Impact 100 members voted by absentee ballot prior to the final presentations (based on what they had read in the entire grant application or grant summaries they were provided). The other 250 members voted at the annual meeting (held October 18th in Pensacola) after hearing final presentations by each finalist. While we were not awarded the grant, we ;learned quite a lot about the grant process and are encouraged to try again next year since our first outing allowed us to get all the way to the final two. Thanks to all who helped with the grant throughout the grant process.

Memorial Reef Naming Program

Recently we have discussed a plan that would allow individuals or businesses to purchase naming rights for one or more individual gulf or sound side reefs. We would then place some type of memorial at the park with a graphic depicting the location of each donor’s reef. We need to start planning for this. Things that need to be worked out include a pricing structure for the naming rights, how to work with the county on the size, location and type of memorial that we might be allowed to be erected, and how best to market the effort.

Permitting:

We now have our State of Florida DEP permits and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineer Federal Permits have been published for comment, which is the first phase of the approval process. Our Environmental Consultant will receive and respond to any requests for additional information as the federal permit approval process continues.

Community Awareness:

The past couple of months we made many appearances at local civic organizations and set up and informational booth or table at a few events. We are looking for more opportunities to do this and need some enthusiastic committee members to step forward to both schedule/coordinate these opportunities and to help by manning a booth or table or presenting our (now fairly standardized) presentation. Opportunities to present our information in front of groups that typically have speakers and lunch meetings is a great way to keep our message out in public circulation and generate the type of community awareness and good will we need to keep the project moving forward.

Next Meeting:

Next monthly meeting – Tuesday, October 27th at 6:30 PM- Navarre Visitor Center Conference Room (enter through rear sound side door please).
At the meeting we will review and document lessons learned for both the Run for the Reef and the Impact 100 Grant and discuss the memorial reef naming plan. As always the public is welcome and encouraged to attend.

Impact 100 Pensacola announced today at a press conference that the Navarre Beach Marine Sanctuary is among ten finalists that will compete for five grants of $102,800 in each of five categories.  There are two finalists per category – the Marine Sanctuary is in the Environmental category.

This is a huge opportunity for the Marine Sanctuary Program ,and can provide most of the necessary funding for the completion of Phase II (sound side reefs).  The final determination will be made after brief presentations by each finalists to the entire Impact 100 membership at their annual meeting on Sunday October 18th at 1:45 PM.

We believe the positive environmental benefits that will come from the sound side reefs – up to 1.8 million gallons of water filtered per day, increased biodiversity and juvenile marine species habitat – is very grant worthy.   In addition the Marine Sanctuary project provides huge economic and educational benefits for the area with an estimated increase of $1.17 million in annual economic output for the combined gulf and sound side reefs and increased local educational institution and grant funded study opportunities,

The Marine Sanctuary Committee is is honored to be among this years finalists and is very grateful to the ladies of Impact 100 – not only for the current grant program but for their continued contribution to making our community a better place to work and live.