Richmond Youth Fight for Environment

The bright yellow warning sign stapled to the tree may not look like much to a casual visitor, but it brings a measure of triumph to Sharon Fuller and the two teenagers by her side. — Oakland Tribune
August 9, 2004

Richmond, California --

The bright yellow warning sign stapled to the tree may not look like much to a casual visitor, but it brings a measure of triumph to Sharon Fuller and the two teenagers by her side.

Fuller, an environmentalist who has dedicated her life to spreading environmental awareness in Richmond's toughest neighborhoods, fought for months to get that sign posted at the Richmond Inner Harbor.

The oversize sign warns anglers not to eat fish pulled from the harbor, near a federally designated Superfund site from the days when United Heckathorn would mix and package pesticides, mostly DDT, for shipment. The company went bankrupt in 1966, but it left behind a toxic stew that contaminates the fish with a range of chemicals, including mercury and DDT.
It's pretty serious stuff, and the lack of a sign warning fisherman of the dangers quickly became something of a crusade with Fuller, founder and executive director of Ma'at Youth Academy. She worked with Contra Costa Health Services to get new signs installed. Health officials said old signs were continually vandalized and removed.

The sign, along with two others that have been placed at different areas of the harbor, are a step in the right direction to Fuller, a Richmond native who founded her youth academy in 1994 as a way to empower low-income residents to learn about and become involved with environmental issues in their midst.

Fuller says it's a fight that is especially important, since she says a disproportionate number of toxic sites and polluting industries are located in poor communities, especially communities of color.

Ma'at (pronounced My-OT) was named after the Egyptian goddess of justice and truth, which Fuller says is fitting for the work that she does.

"I've fallen into using the environment as a way to improve the quality of life," said Fuller, who said she's following in the footsteps of her late mother, Dolores Jackson, a teacher in the West Contra Costa Unified School District who wanted all children to have a quality education.

For Fuller, though, that fight continues in the cause of environmental justice. Her youth academy offers a variety of programs to get young people involved in environmental issues, and encourages people of all ages to monitor air and water pollution and become involved in local enforcement of health and environmental standards.

She's hoping to nurture a new generation of environmental leaders.

Fuller says most environmental campaigns targeted at young people focus on recycling or other issues such as community gardens. Programs at Ma'at go further, focusing on urban ecology and encouraging students to become involved in grass-roots campaigns that tackle specific projects that affect daily living.

In 1999, teenagers working with Ma'at, for instance, helped transform a once-barren patch of land in El Sobrante owned by the East Bay Municipal Utilities District into a thriving Oak Grove. The site, called the Castro Ranch Pumping Station, had been desiccated by herbicides use to control vegetation that presented a fire hazard to neighbors. Working with EBMUD officials, Ma'at staff and Sigma High School students helped plant 30 trees on the site, which helped reduce erosion and removed the potential fire hazard from plant overgrowth.

More recently, students were involved with a three-month study on the fish consumption behaviors of anglers in the Richmond Harbor and San Pablo Reservoir. Students in Ma'at's Youth Ambassadors of Health, or YEAH!

program,helped design and administer the survey. Students polled fishermen in those locations to determine what they knew about the dangers of eating fish pulled from the waters, as well as how often and what types of fish they caught and ate.

Fredericka Bryant, a 16-year-old senior at El Cerrito High School in Richmond, and Thien Le, a 2003 graduate of De Anza High School and now a sophomore at University of California, San Diego, both participated in the study. They said results showed that the majority of anglers either didn't know or only had a vague understanding of the warnings about the fish.

They joined Fuller one recent day at the harbor, where they shared her sense of accomplishment with the new warning signs.

Fredericka said she feels like she's making a difference with the work she does at Ma'at. She's one of Fuller's environmental ambassadors, and she visits schools in Alameda and Contra Costa counties where she teaches younger students about environmental awareness and activism.

"I like going out there to talk to the kids and the whole idea of educating them," Fredericka said. "It's bad, and our community shouldn't be that way."

Fuller's work is gaining notice. In March, Fuller was honored as the 14th Assembly District's woman of the year, based on a nomination from Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley.

"Not only is she training the next generation to help make our communities healthier and safer, but she is also ensuring that more of our urban youth finish high school well-prepared for college-level science and math courses," Hancock said in a statement. "Her students gain a full appreciation for the complex environmental issues low-income areas and communities of color face and she empowers them with the knowledge to create solutions."

And in June, Fuller received the Daniel E. Koshland Civic Unity Award from the San Francisco Foundation. The award recognizes "grassroots social innovators" who work to improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods.

Fuller dedicated the award to her mother's memory.

Contact Michelle Maitre at mmaitre@angnewspapers.com