With Here And Now 2022 kicking off at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium on Saturday, April 23, No Shoes Reefs is celebrating Kenny Chesney’s return to the road by teaming with Tampa Bay Watch for five days of Earth Week activities, culminating with their Living Shoreline Project deploying Reef Balls filled with sea grass and planting the Saltmarsh Grass behind them to prevent further erosion and rebuild lost shoreline on Friday, April 22.

“Talk about a way to merge my worlds,” Chesney says. “We have been doing various projects around the country. But when Tampa Bay Watch had a week of actual activities designed to not just walk people through the process, but teach them how to not only make Reef Balls but allow people to deploy the Reef Balls filled with seagrass on Earth Day, it was the best kind of synergy possible.”

The week’s activities are part of a cumulative activation. On April 19, Reef Balls will be built. On April 20, sea grass will be harvested for the Reef Balls. On April 21, the Reef Balls will be filled with the sea grass for the Earth Day deployment on April 22.

The Living Shoreline Project will sink the Reef Balls into the sediment, where they are heavy enough to remain lodged and allow the sea grass to grow. Their presence protects the shore from further erosion, and the Saltmarsh grass growth and eventual coral growth rebuilds the shoreline that’s been lost since the ‘50s.

Three No Shoes Reefs Ambassadors from Ohio, long time members of No Shoes Nation who’ve taken up the cause, are participating in Friday’s activities, making it truly hands on for NSN and NSR. And to mark the occasion, a special sea grass green t-shirt marking the partnership with Tampa Bay Watch – each made from five repurposed plastic bottles – will be made available to support their alliance at www.league-legacy.com/pages/noshoesreefs.

No Shoes Reefs has had a busy year. Recently profiled in TIDE magazine, the organization has been integral in various projects in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland and Connecticut, expanding its reach to support other organizations sharing its vision and efforts.

Chesney offers, “When you can work with local groups, they understand their needs, their issues – and by supporting them, we can help them take care of their oceanfront in ways that make sense. But being able to be part of something so all-encompassing in Tampa as we’re starting to get back to bringing No Shoes Nation together is the perfect thing to kick off a tour.”

For music, Here And Now 2022 presented by Blue Chair Bay Rum and fueled by MARATHON is stacked with the best country music has to offer: Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music Female Vocalist of the Year Carly Pearce, five-time ACM and four-time CMA Group Old Dominion and three-time GRAMMY Duo/Group winners Dan + Shay. And in Tampa, there’s even more: the Earth Week Living Shoreline Project alongside Tampa Bay Watch’s three decades worth of education, restoration, conservation and community building efforts.

About Tampa Bay Watch:
Tampa Bay Watch is an environmental nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering a healthy Tampa Bay watershed through community-driven restoration projects, education programs and outreach initiatives. Founded in 1993, the organization empowers thousands of community volunteers throughout the year to plant native grasses, construct oyster reefs and remove fishing line and marine debris from coastlines in order to help the bay recover from its environmental threats. The organization also focuses on environmental education striving to create guardians of the Tampa Bay estuary from a young age by providing field experiences that combine classroom resources with hands-on field marine science and environmental exploration.

About No Shoes Reefs:
Originally established in 2015, Chesney teamed with the Building Conservation Trust to create artificial reefs in places where degradation undermined healthy reefs, which provide living habitat for many kinds of sea life. Working at a grass roots level with the Coastal Conservation Association, 18 months after submerging their first two structures, Chesney and CCA President Pat Murray heard the fish finders and depth censors go crazy as they floated over the locations on the St. John River. Since then, No Shoes Reefs has worked with organizations in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, South Carolina, and of course East Tennessee where Chesney is from, to raise awareness and support for education and activations in both freshwater and saltwater habitats.