Save Our Siesta Sands 2 becomes a nonprofit

A Siesta Key group opposed to the Big Pass dredge has launched a fundraising campaign to pay for an independent look at the Army Corps’ plans and the possibility of taking its fight to the courtroom.

Save Our Siesta Sands 2, which Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce member Maria Bankemper launched in December 2013 through the creation of a Facebook page, represents a group of Siesta residents opposed to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project to mine the Big Pass shoal for Lido Beach sand.

When the group’s Facebook page was launched, Bankemper said the movement was a throwback to the Save Our Sands group, which in the early 1990s successfully thwarted an attempt to mine the Big Pass shoal to renourish Venice Beach. The group used litigation and high-profile stunts like human chains on Siesta Beach to gain publicity and ultimately achieve their goals.

Big Pass has never been dredged.

Save Our Siesta Sands 2 recently filmed a music video on the Big Pass shoal, which involved dragging a Hammond Organ out to the sand bar where a drone orbiting overhead filmed a rendition of the Beatles song “Let it be,” which has become the rallying cry for those opposed to the Army project.

According to a post on the group’s Facebook page, the money raised will be used to assist “in funding legal action and a third party study.”

Contact Nolan Peterson at [email protected]