Lee’s

LEE Fuller has dedicated her whole life to helping out the community, and other people. The Emerald resident currently volunteers her time for Emerald for Sustainability, a not-for-profit community action group, as a convenor who organises projects and arranges the paperwork for the group.
“Emerald for Sustainability is a local grassroots climate action group and we have four focus areas – water, waste, energy and biodiversity,” Lee said.
“We do a whole range of things: we have a monthly meeting where we have a guest speaker and the idea is we come together and share ideas and knowledge to make that transition to a carbon sustainable lifestyle.
“We get involved with a few other things with a few different groups and that’s probably the crux of it.”
Emerald for Sustainability focuses on the issues of climate change and how people in the community can do their bit to tackle the problem.
Her hard work, dedication and perseverance earned her a nomination to feature on the front cover of the Yellow and White Pages, and soon after she was chosen to have her picture featured.
“I don’t know who actually nominated me or how the nominations work but someone made contact with me about being on the cover and I thought it was a bit suspicious so I sussed it all out,” she said
“I then found out it was legitimate so I sent off an application form and thought I’d never hear from them again and lo and behold I got another call that said I was successful in the nomination and away we go.”
Although she felt proud to be nominated, Lee stressed that being on the front cover was never about herself, but to promote a greater cause in Emerald for Sustainability within the community.
“Although I’m the one on the cover of the White Pages, it’s not all about me – it’s about the whole group and what we can all achieve. It’s not an egotistical thing and I have never ever wanted it to be,” she said.
“By the same token I am very flattered that I was nominated because the White Pages go out to about 10,000 businesses, households and community groups in the Yarra Valley.
“Even if a small percentage read the story, maybe it’ll be a small percentage that will be further inspired to do something, which is very good because that’s all we ever want – we just want people to take action and once they take the first step, go on to the next step.”
Lee was first inspired to take action after going to a climate summit at Northcote nearly four years ago.
David Spratt, who co-authored Climate Code Red: A Case for Emergency Action, did a presentation and the summit coincided with Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.
“I think most people have always been connected with the environment and I think it was just a wake-up call when Al Gore did An Inconvenient Truth,” Lee said.
“I find it very invigorating and inspirational when people are doing something and you feed off that and have a very good time doing it. I’m really proud of the actions that people take as soon as they realise they’re not doing good on their own.”
Prior to volunteering for Emerald for Sustainability, the mum of two boys contributed her time to helping out at Emerald Primary School during the time her younger son Steven attended.
She was involved in the parent group, where she supported school staff, organised school fund-raisers and helped the kids make mother’s and father’s day gifts and she was also on the school council where she helped the school principal with projects.
She also spent time working with the junior football club and worked at the community house for a morning every week.
“After that, with Emerald for Sustainability, that’s probably oodles. That’s more than my fair share of work for the week,” Lee laughed.
As a wife and mother of two, 25-year-old David and 16-year-old Steven, Lee always manages to find time to spend with her family, who always hold the highest priority in her life.
“I think I balance family life with my working life well, but you’d have to ask their opinion on that,” she joked.
“Volunteering doesn’t necessarily mean you’re away from the house – it’s what you can fit around other things you’re doing. It’s not onerous, it’s not a burden and the idea was that Emerald for Sustainability was never meant to be an onerous thing on anybody.
“When we come together for a meeting, people want to be there because it is positive and no-one feels compelled to be there to make up numbers.
“That’s really how life should be – you want to be there, you want to get involved and people won’t make you feel guilty or ask too much of you.”
Even Lee’s working life consisted of helping others – she spent her working life as an army officer and did 20 years of service with the Australian Army before retiring.
She met her husband Warren during her time in the army and he now volunteers with the CFA with son Steven.
“I think our community effort comes because we were both in the army so that service to the country, for want of a better word, sort of just rolls off into the next phase of your life,” she said.
Lee hopes more people will get involved in combating climate change and making a difference in the community.
“When more people get involved, I feel inspired that our future is looking quite good,” she said.
“My personal idea is that as more people embrace sustainability, it will become more localised, there will be more people in the community who know each other because they will be more focused on what happens in the community.
“As for the rest of it, it’s all a bit bleary – I don’t have a crystal ball!”