Volunteer Spotlight, Jennifer and Mike Harrison
Photo Courtesy of Florida Times-Union
Jennifer and Mike Harrison
Fernandina Plaza Historic State Park
Jennifer and Mike Harrison are like many of the volunteers working with the Florida Park Service, in that they didn’t grow up anywhere near the park they are working in. The Harrisons actually grew up about 4,000 miles away, in the United Kingdom. After moving to the United States and living all across the country, the Harrisons knew that Fernandina Beach was home. On their first visit to Amelia Island in the mid-1990s, they camped in Fort Clinch State Park and were struck by its splendid natural beauty.
They returned many times to Amelia Island, gradually learning more about the area’s history and ultimately deciding to move there. The Harrisons built a house in “Old Towne” Fernandina, the original plotted Spanish settlement on Amelia Island that is also home to a small and seemingly unadorned grass lot, Fernandina Plaza Historic State Park.
Today Mike and Jennifer are working with the Friends of Fort Clinch to install informational signs at the Plaza so that new visitors to Amelia Island have a chance to learn about the long history of the small island and Florida’s smallest state park. “We strongly feel that all of us must do whatever we can to protect our state parks, whether they are huge, like Fort Clinch or tiny like Fernandina Plaza,” say the Harrisons.