Melissa and friends geared up to do what it takes to save
Earth
By TERESA
MALCOLM NCR Staff
In the summer of 1989, an episode of the television show
Highway to Heaven disturbed Melissa Poe in Nashville, Tenn. The
9-year-old saw an angel played by Michael Landon take the viewer 25 years into
the future and show what the earth would look like if no solutions to
environmental problems were found. The earth was dead, there were no trees,
children were dying of cancer.
It showed the world that was my future, and it was a world I
couldnt survive in, said Poe, whose family worships at St. Henry
Parish in the Nashville diocese.
Landon spoke at the end of the television show, saying it was not
too late to change this bleak future. Trish Poe could see that her daughter was
upset and encouraged her to deal with those feelings by taking action. But even
her mother was amazed by the persistence and dedication Poe showed -- and where
her activism would take her. Believe me, I had no idea, Trish Poe
said.
Now 18, Poe has traveled across the United States and as far as
Brazil in her work for the environment. She is the founder of Kids For a Clean
Environment or Kids F.A.C.E., a worldwide childrens environmental
organization she led for eight years.
After watching the Highway to Heaven episode, Poe
wrote a letter to then-President George Bush, telling him how concerned she was
and asking him to help. The president seemed an ideal choice to spread the word
about saving the environment.
She figured he could get on television any time he
wanted, Trish Poe recalled. When he didnt write her back, she
decided it was up to her to get people involved.
The president eventually did reply, Poe said. Several months
later, the White House sent a form letter that told her to stay in school and
not do drugs. There was no mention of the environment. At first it made
me angry, but then it just made me want to do something more, she
said.
Poe was recycling, planting trees, talking to friends and writing
letters to newspapers and politicians -- just anything to get
involved, she said. She recruited six friends to form Kids F.A.C.E. at
Percy Priest Elementary School.
She called billboard companies and convinced them to donate
advertising space. By April of 1990, she had 250 billboards with her letter to
Bush posted across the United States.
With the billboards, local news coverage of her activities and an
appearance on the Today Show, Poe began to receive letters from
other children asking what they could do. Poe suggested to them that they start
their own Kids F.A.C.E. club at school. The result is that Poes club has
grown from her six friends to 300,000 members in 20 countries. The
organizations newsletter, Kids F.A.C.E. Illustrated, goes out to
over 3 million people.
In addition to being an informational resource for Kids F.A.C.E.
chapters, the organization has held leadership workshops for children, training
them in public speaking and environmental issues. So far they have held about
10 and hope to conduct four a year.
Kids were the ones that heard the message and they were the
ones who responded to the call for help, said Trish Poe.
Trish Poe gave up her plant leasing business to work for Kids
F.A.C.E. Her husband, Pat, was the groups primary financial supporter in
the beginning. Eventually expenses grew beyond the familys means, and the
organization acquired funding from Wal-Mart, still a major sponsor.
In addition to doing the day-to-day work needed to run Kids
F.A.C.E., Melissa Poe was increasingly sought after as a speaker. She spoke at
the 1992 Earth Summit in Brazil. You took a family who rarely even went
on vacations, and suddenly the two women in the family are headed off to
California, Florida and Brazil! Trish Poe told NCR.
Adults function in a supportive role in the organization,
primarily through membership on the Chalk Board -- so called because the
groups 9-year-old founder couldnt remember advisory board.
Past Chalk Board members have included Michael Landon and then-Sen. Al Gore of
Tennessee, who was one of the first people to respond to Poes
letters.
Poe herself will continue to be on the board, but in October 1997,
she stepped down as president, handing the reins over to Rachel Jones and
Ashley Craw, both 15. Poe said she is too old to lead the organization.
Theres a lot of clubs out there that say theyre run by kids,
but thats not exactly true, she said.
Poe, a senior at Father Ryan High School in Nashville, thinks she
will always be an advocate for environmental causes, but she is not sure she
wants to make that a career. Thanks to her many appearances on television, one
of her dreams is broadcast journalism, allowing her to turn the tables and be
an interviewer. She also has her eye on a political career, with a big
ambition: to be president. And I will always write my letters back
right! she promised.
Meanwhile, she is applying for college next fall and will continue
in Kids F.A.C.E. as a mentor for their projects, such as the new One In a
Million campaign.
I got the idea when I sent out a Kids F.A.C.E. survey,
asking members what they would do to make the world a better place, Poe
said. So many of them replied, Plant a tree, that I decided
to start a campaign. Our goal is to get 1 million kids to plant one tree each
by the year 2000. If were successful, well increase the world
population of trees by a million -- perhaps more than a million.
Kids F.A.C.E.s newsletter and Web site
www.kidsface.org has publicized the campaign, giving members information
on how to raise the funds for a tree, where and how to plant it and how to care
for it. The One In a Million Project was launched Nov. 3, with Tennessee Gov.
Don Sundquist planting the first tree at Father Ryan High School.
Sometimes people think they cant do much, because
theyre only one person, Poe said. But we need that one
person. When you think in terms of total world population, one in a million
becomes a big number. One in a million can make a difference.
National Catholic Reporter, March 13,
1998
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