When: February 1, 2017. 6:45pm
Where: East End Market, 3201 Corrine Dr, Orlando, FL 32803
Event is FREE and OPEN to the Public
The concept of The Hive is to facilitate community engagement in regard to environmental issues, with the motto “Think Global, Act Local”. This allows for citizens of Orlando to come together on a local level to incite change in their own community.
Sharon Hammond is an organizer, who found her place in the Hive soon after moving to Orlando 3 years ago: “I found an organization driving solutions through inclusivity… making global change accessible through local action.” Though she hadn’t been involved in activism before going to her first Hive meet up, she quickly found herself committed to the cause. “I [feel] not only the inspiration to act, but the responsibility,” she shares.
The celebratory event will be held at East End Market on the second floor of the complex in the APEX, where IDEAS For Us leaders conceptualized the urban agricultural program “Fleet Farming” back in 2013. Fleet Farming has now become one of the most well-known achievements to come through the Hive, “transforming unproductive, wasteful lawns into community-driven urban farm plots”.
Other great community actions have taken place because of The Hive such as various environmental awareness campaigns, river and lake clean-ups, and educational tours.
Next up for The Hive is implementing a new facet of the program, called “Hive/Tank”, much like the reality show “Shark Tank”.
“I see the Hive becoming an incubator for environmental entrepreneurship and public/private partnerships,” Sharon says, and believes the Hive will “[continue] to grow and inspire new people to the movement.”
This Tank idea is described by Sharon as a way to “create a creative and cooperative competition that will allow [HIVE] members a platform and the resources to act on [the] best ideas”. Thus, Orlando community leaders and citizens can give pitches for local environmental projects and solutions, with potential to win funding for the project they present.
The guest speaker for the upcoming event on February 1st will be CEO of Feeding Children Everywhere, Dave Green.