Sunshine Matters

VISIT FLORIDA and Visit Pensacola marked the one-year anniversary of the Gulf oil spill by joining together to announce the grand prize winner for the Great VISIT FLORIDA Beach Walk promotion.  The winner, Bridgette Price of Pensacola, was awarded a $5,000 American Express gift card and a Mazda Miata MX-5.  The Beach Walk on Nov. 6, 2010, turned out to be the world’s biggest one-day beach rally and photo fest ever held.

Today on the one-year anniversary, we have an amazing opportunity to close the loop on the oil spill by awarding the Beach Walk prize.  I remain awed by the tremendous outpouring of support we received from our fellow Floridians who wanted to get out and show the world the beauty of this paradise we all enjoy every day. 

The Great VISIT FLORIDA Beach Walk resulted in more than 5,200 date-stamped photos being shot and uploaded in one morning to VISITFLORIDA.com, submitted by over 3,700 volunteers representing all 34 coastal counties and covering all of Florida’s 825 miles of sandy shores.  The event would not have been possible without the involvement of Volunteer Florida, which organized the thousands of volunteer walkers and photographers by assigning each a specific beach mile to cover.  VISIT FLORIDA’s tourism industry Partners stepped up as well by arranging local activities and events tied to the Beach Walk.

“We are proud of our partnership with VISIT FLORIDA and certainly appreciate their amazing promotion, which put a positive light on the beaches of the Pensacola Bay Area during a time when we needed it most,” said Ed Schroeder, Executive Director of the Pensacola Convention & Visitor Information Center. “We wanted to show the world how beautiful our beaches are, and the Great VISIT FLORIDA Beach Walk and the thousands of participants like Bridgette did just that.”

Visitors to VISITFLORIDA.com were asked to vote for their favorite Florida beach mile and, given the Pensacola area’s support for the event, it was not surprising that the winning beach mile was nearby in Perdido Key.  One of the thousands of volunteers who participated in the Beach Walk and entered the promotion while voting for her favorite beach mile was Bridgette Price from Pensacola.  Price, who was randomly selected from more than 10,000 voters, was on hand today to accept her prize.

“I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the Beach Walk and am proud to have helped get the word out that Pensacola Beach and all of Florida’s beaches are as beautiful as ever,” said Bridgette Price.  “I really just wanted to support the community and the beaches, so winning a Miata and $5,000 is truly amazing.  This is going to be a fantastic summer!”