Florida Conservation Voters Education Fund will host a Picnic in the Park on December 14, 2019, from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. This family-fun event is intended to bring together the South Florida community to learn about local clean air issues and ways they can get involved.
FCV Education Fund will share information on our Clean Buses for Healthy Niños program. In Florida, 1 in 11 children suffer from asthma. Diesel buses expose 2.7 million children to toxins and known carcinogens every school day. Upgrading school buses to run on clean energy will help protect our most vulnerable population from air pollution. In 2015 Volkswagen was found to have cheated federal emissions tests, polluting the air we breathe with toxins emitted by their diesel vehicles. Florida has received $166 million from the Volkswagen’s federal settlement and Clean Buses For Healthy Niños asks that a majority of those funds are invested in electric school buses.
Families have a right to breathe clean air, and that is why we want to educate and empower them to take action. The American Lung Association gave Miami-Dade County a C grade for high ozone days. Days like this occur when weather conditions likely combine with emissions pollution to create high levels of ozone near the ground. This can cause very harmful health effects for communities and kids. Air pollution does not discriminate, but it does disproportionately affect the health of communities of color. The added burden of dirty air can cause respiratory illnesses, eye irritation, headaches, asthma, and many other conditions. Clean air improves our health and quality of life and the time is now to fight for our children’s future.
It’s time to take action. Together with partners from Alianza For Progress, Dream in Green, Moms Clean Air Force, and New Florida Majority, we invite families and friends to come out and join us for a free event with food, activities for the kids, and educational talk and tools about clean air issues in our state.
RSVP on Facebook and join us at Goodlet Park, 4200 West 8th Ave., Hialeah. We are hosting this event in District 110, represented by Rep. José Oliva, in the City of Hialeah. Hialeah is the sixth-largest city in the state of Florida and is a beautiful reflection of how diversity and multicultural communities can make South Florida a wonderful place to live, work, and play