Organizers Rev Up Hybrid Engines for Earth Day Celebration and Recycling Record Attempt

The new State College of Florida is ready to welcome a mountain of trash on Thursday.
 
Shane Henry, a tall, skinny marketing major who heads a hard-working student committee at the school, says Thursday's EarthFest 2010 is hoping to attract thousands of students and others bearing recyclable plastic containers to the 34th St..W. side of the campus as organizers mount an assault on the Guiness Book of Records on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, April 22.
 
The all-day effort starts at 11AM at 60th Ave. W. and 34th St. W., just a few blocks from the Manatee Technical Institute.
 
This is the second record-setting attempt for local EarthFest organizers. The last one, in 2008, brought in an estimated 41,000 recyclable plastic bottles in a few hours -- everything from water to milk jugs and a myriad of plastic stuff in between -- that can help unclog the county's sewers, brighten up its beaches and waterways, clean out junk-filled vacant lots, prevent "dead zones" in coastal waters, and empty recycling bins from here to Myakka City.
 
But that's only a small part of what Henry has planned for EarthFest, which last year attracted thousands of environmentally-friendly -- or just curious -- students, residents and tourists from throughout Manatee County and beyond.
 
Manatee County is throwing up tents and offering other assistance, while local dealers for auto manufacturers like Toyota and Ford are trotting out their proudest new hybrid and electric vehicles.  And for the first time ever, a new-technology firm will present its proposed "fractional hydrogen" system in the HHO Games & Exposition area of EarthFest 2010.
 
Chava Energy, which claims facilities in Florida, California, Washington State, the UK, Germany, Italy, and Australia, is sending one of its top scientists, Jones Beene of San Francisco, to offer a multimedia talk on their little-known new technology that they claim can replace fossil-fuel use in conventional vehicles and, they say, costs far less than a conventional engine.  The company is developing a simple hydrogen generator that it plans to have ready next year.  The following year they plan to introduce the first vehicle powered by fractional hydrogen.
 
Other HHO (hydrogen generator) boosters and vendors will also be displaying their products at EarthFest 2010

Earth Day is now a 40-year-old tradition
Earth Day began in 1970 and immediately caught on with Americans who were concerned about environmental degradation but found no organizational focus for their efforts.  With the Presidential Declaration of Earth Day during the Nixon Administration, though, millions began to get involved in earnest in the job of cleaning up Planet Earth.
 
Late actor Paul Newman spoke to a crowd of thousands on a blocked off portion of Fifth Avenue for the first Earth Day,  and late Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin -- the principal founder of Earth Day -- gave it a boost on Capitol Hill.  What followed was a turning point, perhaps even for the planet.  Tens of thousands of activities now take place every year that have their origin in the enthusiasm stimulated by the first Earth Day.
 
The State College of Florida EarthFest student organizing committee "worked all through the weekend," organizer Shane Henry said, as they sought to tie together all the loose ends of the show.  

According to Henry, more than 25 "green" vendors, large and small, are expected to display their wares at EarthFest 2010.