February 20, 2002

RELEASE IMMEDIATELY

CONTACT:
Angela Jones, Public Information Officer
City of Richmond
City Manager's Office
(510) 621-1230

CITY BREAKS GROUND ON SHORELINE PARK NAMED IN HONOR OF LONGTIME RICHMOND COMMUNITY ACTIVIST 

Lucretia Edwards Devotes Decades To Parks, Pristine Environments, and Public Access

On Friday, March 1, 2002, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, the public is invited to join more than two hundred close friends of community advocate Lucretia Edwards, along with Richmond City officials in a groundbreaking ceremony for the Lucretia Edwards Shoreline Park at the foot of Marina Way South in Richmond. A reception will immediately follow the ceremony at city offices, 1401 Marina Way South.

Raised in a Quaker family in Philadelphia, Mrs. Edwards moved to Point Richmond after the war in 1948 where she married her husband, Tom. She has spent her life as a catalyst for change and improvement in Richmond. "The City of Richmond is my vocation and my avocation," Mrs. Edwards once said many years ago.

Her accomplishments are too numerous to mention, but those that come immediately to mind list her as the founder of a grass-roots group, Friends of Richmond, by her description, a watchdog group that works to protect the land, the water and the air for Richmond residents. "I'd like to make sure there are generous parks with beautiful views of the Bay, public streets rather than private ones and access to the marsh areas," said Mrs. Edwards.

Mrs. Edwards is also credited as the driving force behind an organization that successfully worked to have Point Richmond placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Her civic achievements include her historic appointment as the first woman member of the Richmond Personnel Board nine years after the panel was formed in 1951. She is a longtime member of the League of Women Voters, and worked to establish a Home Health Hospice in West County.

Her crusades extend far beyond the Richmond shoreline, reaching out to sea to the East Brother Island Light Station, which Mrs. Edwards and friends saved from demolition and is now on the register of National Register of Historic Places.

To arrange a media interview, please call Mrs. Edwards at (510) 232-3118. For information about the event, call (510) 621-1230.