Treasures In Our Backyard

This is a great article I found on the Gulf Coast Citizen Diplomacy Council website.
I hope you enjoy it.


Why should delegates come to the Central Gulf Coast? Coming to our area adds to the diversity of the national itinerary. We have medium-sized communities, small towns & rural areas and although delegates already visit other parts of Florida, we are different culturally from the Sunshine State cities currently incorporated in the national program.
In addition, just off the top of our heads we can easily list Twenty Great Things about Northwest Florida:
The Lacey A. Collier Sensory Complex, a one-of-a-kind multisensory environment devoted to special needs children
The nationally-acclaimed National Museum of Naval Aviation on Pensacola Air Station, one of the largest aviation museums in the world which uses aviation as a teaching medium and motivational force through its Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics lessons for 6th to 8th graders
The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition which specializes in artificial intelligence, robotics, machine-learning, and human-machine interaction
The Andrews Institute for orthopedics and sports medicine which recently announced its new program for training future space tourists
Pensacola, the first European settlement in the nation, which will celebrate its 450th anniversary on August 15, 2009
The Archaeology Institute at the University of West Florida where students study archaeology, do fieldwork, and learn to display and curate their findings, including the 2006 discovery of the second oldest shipwreck in the United States}
The Historic Pensacola Village in downtown Pensacola where costumed interpreters explain colonial history in among more than 20 buildings
The Bearheart Native Paths Mobile Museum which provides educational opportunities to schools, libraries, community centers, and churches
The General Electric wind generator plant of which there are only three in the U.S.
The University of West Florida Build Educate Sustain Technology (BEST) House which is creating a durable energy-efficient home affordable to median homebuyers
Project Greenshores, a multi-million dollar habitat restoration effort taking place along the urban shoreline of downtown Pensacola
The Green Circle Bio Energy plant in Cottondale, the world’s largest wood pellet plant
Gulf Islands National Seashore, the largest track of protected shoreline in the U.S., which includes Naval Live Oaks Reservation and Fort Barrancas
The environment itself, one of the five most biologically diverse regions in the nation
The Department of Solid Waste Management of Escambia County which uses state of the art waste management techniques including a Landfill Gas Extraction System
The Regional Windstorm Damage Mitigation Training and Demonstration Center which includes an energy-efficient “Hurricane House” to demonstrate how a structure can be built to withstand the stress of hurricane-force winds
The Escambia County Division of Emergency Management and its Emergency Operations Center which trains other communities in emergency management
The Florida-China Linkage Institute which serves as a clearinghouse, facilitator, and information source for academic & business networking
The International Baccalaureate Program at Pensacola High School, ranked as one of the best high schools in the nation by Newsweek
The U.S.S. Oriskany, the largest vessel ever sunk to make a reef and the only sunken aircraft carrier accessible to divers