‘Something I’m meant to do.’ How family inspired one Richmonder to embrace a life of service

This story was told by Abigail Montejo to Kyonda Trass in an interview. It has been edited for length and clarity.

My parents are both from Mexico and moved to the U.S. when they were pretty young. They met and got married in Los Angeles and that’s where they had me and my little brother. But when people ask me where I’m from, I say I’m from Richmond.

Richmond is full of stories. Share yours.

Amplify Richmond is our new series featuring stories told by residents in their own words. Got a story to tell? Learn more.

I was about 8 when my parents moved the family here. I went to school at Lincoln Elementary and John F. Kennedy High School. For a time, my mom worked a night shift cleaning offices at Kaiser. She and my dad would switch off taking care of my brother and I. We would be with our dad at night, and with my mom during the day while he was at work. He mostly did construction and handyman jobs back then.

As kids, my brother and I used to go with my dad everywhere he went. One of the places we spent a lot of our time was at church. My dad was a volunteer coordinator, so we helped out with a lot of the community events. We would also accompany him to protests. I can’t remember all of them because I was pretty young — but I do remember one being about immigration laws. My dad was always sort of like the eye of the community. Even today, he’s a block captain in his neighborhood. He’s someone who’s just always been involved and doing things for people in Richmond.

These days, my parents are mostly preoccupied with their small business, which is a trackless train ride for kids. They’ve been at it since 2009, and I’ve been helping out with it since I was 15. I haven’t been as involved with the business since I got married, but my dad and my brother and I built the train ourselves. It’s available to be rented out for children’s parties, and it’s also at the Richmond flea market on Sundays. My dad is the train conductor. He’s very bubbly, so you can’t miss him. My mom usually works the ticket booth. People can get a ticket, hop on, and my dad will just take them away. 

Seeing my parents involved in the community in so many different ways inspired me to want to do the same. They’re a big reason why I decided to go the route I did with my education and community work. It’s through them that I discovered my passion for serving, for being there for people when they need it and helping them get things that may not be easy to come by.

I was the first person in my family to go to college. I went to UC Santa Cruz for a little while, but ended up moving back in with my parents in Richmond and attending Contra Costa College, where I got an associate’s degree in social behavior. After that, I transferred to CSU East Bay and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in human development, with a concentration on adolescents. 

While I was studying at CSU East Bay, I got an email from the Richmond nonprofit, Pogo Park. My dad had worked with them previously through another organization called Richmond BUILD, and I’d done a youth internship with them back in 2013. I guess they liked my work, because they offered me a job. I still had two years to go before I could get my bachelor’s degree, so I had to turn them down. But they encouraged me to stay in touch, so after I graduated in 2018 I emailed back my former boss there, Toody Maher, who started the organization. She pulled me in and I’ve been with them ever since, a little more than seven years now.

What Pogo Park essentially does is adopt unused spaces in Richmond and then come together with residents from the surrounding community to create a design for a public park. Then we help to build what’s been envisioned, and staff the park with people to run onsite programs and activities for all ages. We currently have two parks: Elm Playlot, which is on Elm Avenue between Seventh and Eighth Streets and Harbour-8 Park, which is being constructed on Ohio Avenue between Harbour Way and Eighth Street. We’re really excited about seeing the second park completed, which is going to be two or three times bigger than the first park. I’m excited to see what it brings to that community.

At Elm Playlot, the park itself is always open. We also have a building on site where we run scheduled programs and activities and supply equipment for kids like balls, hula hoops and jump ropes. We distribute meals and snacks through a partnership with West Contra Costa Unified School District. We try to keep things fun and entertaining and collaborate with other local organizations to bring activities. We’ve had local naturalists come and teach kids about local insects and butterflies. We’ve done painting classes and we have a Zumba class for adults that’s taught by a local organization called Weigh of Life. Everything we do at Pogo Park is free to the community.

Pogo Park as an organization also has side projects. For example, the Yellow Brick Road, which is a bike and pedestrian path that was designed and created over many years to help Iron Triangle residents get more easily and safely to and from their neighborhood to community resources like grocery stores, schools, churches and public transit locations. 

In addition to my main job at Pogo Park, I’m also the vice president of the Iron Triangle Neighborhood Council. I’ve only been in the position for a few months now, but I’m loving it. I get to work with the council president, Sherwin Harris, who also works with the Bay Area Rescue Mission, a nonprofit that serves people who are unhoused or vulnerable. The work we do together on the neighborhood council fuels me to do even more in the community. I feel so honored to be doing it.

The council hosts neighborhood meetings that are open to the public on the third Wednesday of every month at the Nevin Community Center. We’re doing a lot of community outreach right now to bring more people in. At the meetings, we inform residents about projects that are either happening or going to happen in the neighborhood, so that people can have input. At the end of the meetings, we usually have an open forum so people who are not on the agenda can share whatever news or updates they have, or discuss concerns within the community. We do our best to help with whatever the situation is, through our relationship with the city and other organizations. 

Aside from that, I’m also one of the leads for Friends of the Richmond Greenway, a collaboration of residents and community-based nonprofits that comes together every first Monday of the month to share updates, news or concerns related to the Greenway, an urban trail that runs next to the train tracks for several miles through south Richmond. The group is a way for residents to stay in communication and support educating other residents about the Greenway, because a lot of people still don’t know what it is.

All of this community work took on even greater meaning for me back in 2020, when I became pregnant with my first baby who, unfortunately, was stillborn. It was a tragedy. When I delivered and we learned that he had no heartbeat, I felt like I had a lot of love trapped in me; like my love was in jail and I didn’t know how to get it out. I grieved, but I still had that feeling in me. But coming back to work at Pogo Park, something happened; I felt like my love for children had grown even more, it had become even bigger.

So that was it. Since then, contributing to this community has felt like an outlet. And while I’m helping others, the work is also helping me. It’s therapeutic, and it’s helped me grow as a person, mentally and professionally. I just feel right, like this is something I’m meant to do.

Related stories

From Richmond’s south side to MLB and back: Eddie Miller ‘wasn’t just good,’ he was great

June 16, 2026June 16, 2026, 10:02 a.m.

I overcame years of addiction. Now I help my Richmond neighbors make healthier choices

July 7, 2026

‘Soy una guerrera’: Homeless in Richmond, an immigrant shares her story of resilience

January 19, 2026