Giving Back – On the Job and Off

Making a difference is an everyday occurrence for three County employees, but for them it just isn’t enough. The threesome recently traveled to Huatulco, Mexico to help with conservation efforts at turtle nesting beaches.

Why spend your time off helping others?

“All of us have a passion for service, not just locally, but internationally,” said Housing and Community Development’s Megan O’Dowd. “There’s a lot of camaraderie and close friendships, we have similar mindsets for improving communities and for the long term.”

If that name isn’t familiar, you may recognize her last major project. O’Dowd recently coordinated the County’s participation in the annual count of homeless people. HHSA’s Shelly Tregembo deals with integrated care contracts involving physical, behavioral health and substance abuse. HHSA’s Anita Darling helps procure and monitor county behavioral health contracts.

“My nine-to-five work is very technical and very dry, it’s funding-based and I basically help contractors adhere to funding regulations,” said Darling. “I help people in roundabout way; I like a more hands-on approach.”

Back row, second from left, Shelly Tregembo, third from left Megan O'Dowd, fifth from left Anita Darling

One at a time, all three joined San Diego’s Uptown Rotary Club. The small group of about 18 volunteers regularly performs community service projects.

“I’ve always done volunteer work," said Shelly Tregembo. “I joined Uptown because it provided more structure to my giving back to the community as opposed to having great intentions to do charity work. At Rotary, we’re doing projects once a month.”

When WILDCOAST talked to Uptown about a great way to connect with nature, help a community and have fun doing it, well OK, but then…

“If you look at a baby sea turtle and your heart doesn’t melt,” said Tregembo.

All three were hooked. All paid their own way. Temperatures expected to be in the 90s were actually in the 100s and with 85 percent humidity. Tarantulas, geckos, and iguanas abounded. But the scenery was breathtaking, miles and miles of undeveloped coastline, coral reefs and small villages relatively untouched by tourism.

‘The area is so amazingly beautiful: jungle, then sand, then ocean,” said Darling.

The key is to maintain that beauty. The volunteers created bilingual signs on how to keep the area clean and stressed the ecological importance of the shoreline. They took advantage of what is now the dry season and picked up trash in a stand of mangroves before the debris could be washed into the ocean.

“You realize how delicate the ecosystem is,” said Tregembo.

The volunteers visited a school and helped create a mural highlighting the different marine animals found offshore. They also stressed the importance of conservation to the grade schoolers.

“They live at the beach, it’s a way of life,” said O’Dowd. “We emphasized this is really their community and conservation is key.”

At one time, turtles were slaughtered in this region for their meat. Now an aquarium and conservation center raises baby turtles until they are old enough to be released into the wild. 

“For every 1,000 eggs, only one survives to adulthood,” said O’Dowd.  

Seeing the natural environment where turtles breed proved to be a highlight of the trip. Each of the three was able to set a young turtle back into the sand near the shore and watch it return to the sea.

Now the whirlwind trip is over and all three Rotarians are back at work but they’re already working on their next project.

“We’re all running in the Hot Chocolate Race, a 15K, to benefit the Ronald McDonald house in two weeks,” said Darling.

Naturally. They’re doing what they like to do: give back to help others, again.