- Author: Saoimanu Sope
Max Fairbee spent his high school years moving around Southern California to cities like Covina, La Verne, Pomona and Apple Valley, hoping that his mother would find stability in the next place they'd call “home.” After attending five different high schools, Fairbee decided to take the California High School Proficiency Exam and earned his diploma that way.
Eventually, he accepted a job at Tower Records in West Covina, working there for six years. “Until my current job, Tower Records was the longest position at a single company I ever held,” said Fairbee. “That's where I began to discover myself and understand diversity and acceptance.”
Fairbee loved the arts and wanted to find a career where he could utilize creativity and share his appreciation of the arts. Attending Orange Coast College and Platt College, he spent time learning typography, photography, fine art and graphic art.
Unsure of what he wanted to do next and struggling to secure employment as a graphic artist, Fairbee took a job at the North Coast Co-Op, a natural foods grocery store in Eureka, after moving to Humboldt County in 2009. Fairbee worked at the co-op for over three years and while he worked in various positions, his most valuable role was conducting food demonstrations.
“My inclination for community service started in that food co-op,” said Fairbee. “I learned about where food comes from, what goes into your food, food sustainability, and all of the lights in my head went off.”
Fairbee began working as a mental health technician, teaching life skills to adults with different levels of learning abilities. “I was teaching them how to do things, like, managing medication and doing laundry,” Fairbee said. “At the same time, I was developing their appreciation for art and music by hosting workshops.”
Teaching becomes a path forward
Channeling his appreciation for healthy living and love for teaching, Fairbee now works in Alameda County, developing and delivering nutrition education classes for older adults, almost half from the Chinese and Vietnamese communities in Oakland and the surrounding area. He teaches them ways to achieve and sustain healthy lifestyles through the Eat Healthy Be Active Community Workshops.
The lessons are centered on understanding what is healthy and why. One of the skills Fairbee teaches his students is how to read a nutrition facts label. At some sites, he also incorporates gardening education using edible plants.
“I told myself that I would never take a job where I didn't go home and like to talk about my work,” Fairbee said.
Naturally, Fairbee went on to describe how proud he feels about his work with older adults in the Bay Area. In mid-April, Fairbee celebrated his recent class of graduates who are all over the age of 60. Students were highly engaged in the lessons about healthy living and Fairbee had 23 students complete the course.
“There's a lot of language barriers, so, I rely on interpreters a lot,” Fairbee explained. “You would think that after six weeks, and with a language barrier you'd have fewer students complete a course like this. But no, not my students.”
Remaining physically active is a recurring topic and activity throughout the six-week course, according to Fairbee, who noticed an association between physical activity and happiness.
“I had a 98-year-old student who invited me to her birthday party at the Oakland Zoo one time,” Fairbee recalled. “Apparently she did that every year and she invited all her friends.”
Community service is ‘paying it forward'
Fairbee said that the friendships he has cultivated over the years have played a significant role in his desire to give back. Born in Indiana, Fairbee said that growing up, he always knew he needed to come to California.
“I watched a lot of Brady Brunch growing up. For some reason, they had this perfect life and I wanted that,” he said. Eventually, Fairbee's parents divorced, and his mother moved to Southern California and took him with her when he was 13.
“When my mom brought me to California, she saved my life,” said Fairbee.
He didn't know why, but he knew that he couldn't stay in that Indiana community. Perhaps it was the blatant racism or xenophobia that he observed within his own family or others. Either way, Fairbee was adamant about moving westward.
“I'm very different from my family,” said Fairbee. “For one, I'm gay. But also, we just have different beliefs in how to treat people,” he explained.
Fairbee said that the people who made his life in California full of “magical moments” were friends and their families. He remembered celebrating Thanksgiving with a friend, and how much more fun and special it was compared to the holiday spent with his own family.
“Over the years, I noticed that since I moved to California in the '80s, important holidays and celebrations were made special because of my friends,” he said.
The opportunity to spread love and kindness is what keeps Fairbee motivated. “Community service comes from the kindness of others. That's what my friends did for me and the work I do now is my way of paying it forward,” he said.
Fairbee says that he cannot describe the feeling of community service, but that when you have done it once or twice, there's no greater reward.
“There's like a million thank you's and at the end of the day, you feel full. And not from food, but of love,” he said. “Honestly, I'll be doing this work until I retire. I can't see myself going anywhere else now.”
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
UC Davis and UC ANR receive $10 million for water research and education; Bay Area children will be invited to learn about water's importance to life
A new University of California Cooperative Extension program will teach Bay Area schoolchildren about water through hands-on activities. Funded by a $565,000 USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant, the education program is part of a larger research project led by UC Davis Professor Isaya Kisekka, in partnership with multiple institutions and ecologists, to sustain irrigated agriculture while improving groundwater quantity and quality in the Southwest under a changing climate.
4-H Water Wizards, a UCCE-led, inquiry-based, water education project, will include opportunities for students of color to meet with diverse scientists and imagine career possibilities in science, technology, education and math (STEM).
“As a grandparent myself, I'm proud to support the University of California Cooperative Extension's Water Wizards program,” said Nate Miley, Alameda County Board of Supervisors vice president. “This exciting, hands-on learning experience teaches students the importance of water conservation while encouraging good stewardship of our environment.”
With 4-H Water Wizards, students will explore water scarcity, water quality and how they can be a catalyst for change. Students will also take a field trip to UC Agriculture and Natural Resources' Elkus Ranch Environmental Education Center in Half Moon Bay for hands-on learning.
“I am incredibly ‘pumped' for the 4-H Water Wizards program to inspire Bay Area BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color] youth to pursue STEM through connections with water, food and the environment as well as receive mentorship from UC Cooperative Extension scientists,” said Mallika Arudi Nocco, an assistant professor of Cooperative Extension in soil-plant-water relations at UC Davis.
“We want to create an opportunity for urban kids in the Bay Area to experience different surroundings and literally get their feet wet,” said Frank McPherson, director of UC Cooperative Extension in the Bay Area counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and San Francisco. “We expect our hands-on, research-based, experiential learning approach to STEM will stimulate the interest of students who are Black, Indigenous and people of color.”
He envisions students from Hayward and Oakland dipping jars into a gurgling stream that flows through the rolling green hills and canyons of the 125-acre Elkus Ranch so educators can show them some of the organisms that live in the water as part of the natural ecosystem.
“We will collaborate with school districts, teachers and staff on an 11-week program designed to spark environmental learning, increase STEM knowledge and broaden students' understanding of water, sustainable agriculture and conservation,” said McPherson.
Initially UC Cooperative Extension will be reaching out to Bay Area students with a focus on 7th through 10th graders in Alameda County schools with high populations of Black, Latino and other students of color.
“Hayward Unified is excited to partner with UC ANR on the Water Wizards Youth Program to provide students with hands-on learning experiences that encourage inquiry, a provide chance to visit a local Water Education Center, and build environmental literacy for students to take action on water issues in the community,” said Nancy Wright, an elementary science teacher with the Alameda County Office of Education.
The program is designed to provide experiential learning to BIPOC students and encourage them to build upon their own knowledge and skills, McPherson said. “We teach them that water is a valuable and limited resource so that they can make informed decisions,” he explained. “The program also includes a service-learning project that combines learning objectives with community service.”
To adapt 4-H Water Wizards for the Bay Area, McPherson said they are working with Marianne Bird, the UC 4-H youth development advisor who developed after school 4-H Water Wizards programs for Sacramento-area children.
Under Bird's supervision, Capitol Corridor Water Wizards engages about 400 youth each year, predominately at schools in lower-income neighborhoods, where at least 50% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The Water Wizard participants learn about water cycles, watersheds, salinity, water density and water issues and begin to understand how people, plants and animals depend on water.
McPherson said the NIFA grant will support delivery of the pilot water education program with Alameda County schools. He is currently working to secure funding from other sources to expand Water Wizards to more schools in the Bay Area.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
The UC Cooperative Extension office in Alameda County has relocated from Harbor Bay Parkway in the city of Alameda to Hayward. The new UCCE Alameda County address is 224 West Winton Ave., Suite 134, Hayward, CA 94544. Rob Bennaton, UCCE director for Alameda and Contra Costa counties, can be reached at (510) 670-5621. Please consult the ANR directory for the new phone numbers of other UCCE employees in Alameda County.