UF Gulf Scholars bring hope and healing to coastal communities
On a warm June day, under the shade of her home’s carport near Sanders Beach in the Florida Panhandle, 69-year-old Dixie Wilkinson spoke and seven University of Florida students listened.
Wilkinson told the students about her childhood, growing up on the land her family owned for more than 150 years along the shore of Pensacola Bay. She told stories of her love for gardening, her endless days playing outside with her dog, and the pony she raised under the shade of the same oak trees that still dot the land. She then shared that, today, she no longer gardens in the soil that used to grow her family’s vegetables. She doesn’t even step outside without shoes on her feet for fear of the poisons lurking in the soil.
The seven students who listened to Wilkinson were part of the UF Gulf Scholars Oral History Field Excursion: Documenting the Legacy of Environmental Harm and Heroism in Pensacola, Florida, which involved interviewing individuals who have been directly affected by environmental hazards in the region. Wilkinson’s home sits just yards away from what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has deemed one of the worst Superfund sites in the nation – a location contaminated by hazardous substances that is in need of serious long-term cleanup.
