We would like to thank all the staff at Global Organics for treating us like we are family, especially Ronnie. Global Organic was founded by Mitch Blumenthal, an organic farmer located in Sarasota, Florida. As Mitch sought out other organic foods for his family beyond what he was cultivating on his Blumenberry Farm, he realized that an opportunity existed for an organic-supply company.
When Global Organics heard about the Organic Take Over Tour, they reach out to us to see what they could do to help us with this one of kind event. Ronnie offered to host us when we reached Sarasota. She set us up with a place to sleep and places where we could share our message! Finally, a stop where we did not have to worry about where we were going to sleep and who we were going to speak to.
So we rode into Sarasota. Chad was on the phone getting directions to Global Organics’ headquarters. By the way, for those of you who know Chad, you understand that this man cannot find his way outside of his own back yard! So why, I mean why the hell is this man taking directions…
After over shooting our location by 5 mile, thanks to Chad, “Ronnie” had to come out and find us…lol—thanks Chad we can always count on you to get us lost. But anyways we finally arrived at our location Global Organics staff treated us like we were family; I want to thank everyone at Global for there warm greeting. Some people actually cheered and they gave us Sambazon smoothies, which after almost 50 miles on a bicycle tasted like sweet nectar of the gods. After that it was off to the Tallevast for our first Take Over. We didn’t have time to take a shower, so we had to go as we were.
Tallevast has a great history; for those who don’t know, Tallevast is dominantly an African American Community in Sarasota. Surprisingly, we found out that Lockheed Martin had “inadvertently” poisoned the town’s water supply with the chemicals they were using in their plant. So the land, all of the water supply, and the workers themselves were going home with the raw chemicals on there clothing. It turned out that the chemicals caused an outbreak of CANCER and many families to lost loved one’s before their time. People are still affected by this today. The people of Tallevast took action and filed a lawsuit against Lockheed Martin and won the case. But Lockheed Martin, instead of doing the right thing, used its financial powers to tie up the Settlement in court for, what is now, close to a decade. Not one person has received any payment from this “settlement”. “PLEASE DON’T FORGET ABOUT US” this is what one of the children said to me as we were leaving!!!
How can I forget them? We all close our eyes to many ill treatments because we feel it’s not our place to stand up and lend a helping hand. So we walk past or drive past with our eyes closed ignoring problems staring us in the face! So for that little girl, please know that I will never forget you. To the people of Tallevast, as long as I got a voice I will keep telling your story.
After visiting Tallevast, we were exhausted but we could not sleep just yet: we stayed up thinking about life, about what it means to live, and how we take the simplest things for granted. Thank you, Ronnie and Global Organics for bringing us there and letting the kids see that there is more to life than becoming an athlete or entertainer, and for reminding us of what it means to have a chance to live.
Day 2 Sarasota
We got to go to Easter Seals where we received our best reception of the tour. We rode our bikes into a crowd of cheering fans and welcome signs. It was so astounding to see about 100 people out there cheering for us! For me (Kirk), I felt like a rock star “Momma look at me now; I am on top of the world” lol. Easter Seals, as an organization, takes care of handicapped and mentally challenged people. So we have to thank you, Mary Anne (MAZ) and the staff at Easter Seals, for the invaluable work that you do and for hosting an Organic Takeover. Three Cheers for to Global Organics, for making Sarasota an incredible stop. To find out more about Global Organics log on to http://www.globalorganics.ws/
2 weeks ago