Putting Doodles to Good Use

Sheriff’s Deputy Wins Wellness Logo Design Contest

Human Resources Director Don Turko presents Sheriff's Deputy Mike Moeller with a certificate for winning the logo contest. 

Mike Moeller is a doodler. He always has been.

When he was a young boy, the Sheriff’s Deputy sketched superheroes. As an undergraduate student at San Diego State, he drew editorial cartoons for the college’s newspaper, The Daily Aztec.

In recent years, his cartoons have run in the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association’s monthly magazine, Silver Star, and he has sold them to an international cartoon syndicate. For Moeller, drawing falls somewhere in between a hobby and a part-time job.

Now, one of his designs will be featured as the official logo of the County’s Employee Wellness Program. Moeller recently won a county-wide contest in which employees were asked to come up with a visual identity for the program, which launched in January.   

The County wanted an image that employees would be able to relate to, said Human Resources Director Don Turko. The program needed a symbol that would pique employees’ interest and also encourage their participation.    

Out of 40 submissions, Moeller’s image of a bright yellow traffic-style sign won over the judges. Inside the design’s diamond shape is a black silhouette of a walker, dubbed the “Wellness Walker,” striding energetically. An outsized heart is outlined in bright red. Beneath the image, reads: “Wellness Ahead.”

“What struck us was the clean design of the logo and the readily recognizable symbol,” said Turko, who was part of the judging panel. “Most people slow down and take notice when the yellow caution sign is seen.”

Moeller’s design is expected to get a lot of exposure. The logo is already featured on the program’s website and on InSite.  Human Resources Services Manager Gabriela Berry, who coordinates the Wellness Program with Deputy Human Resources Director Jan Mazone, said the logo will go on t-shirts, signs and posters.

The Wellness Program is aimed at helping employees make healthy choices, from eating more fruits and vegetables and encouraging exercise to offering convenient medical screenings and flu shots.

Employees had two weeks to design and submit entries in February. Moeller learned he won last month.

Moeller said he came up with the concept in less than an hour after reading the contest guidelines. He drew the silhouette by hand and then put together the rest of the image using a software program on his computer.

“I thought, what is the simplest picture I could make that everyone would recognize, that would convey as much of” the county’s objectives as possible, Moeller said.

He designed the image with energy, vitality and happiness in mind.

“I pictured someone whistling while walking,” Moeller said. “It ended up having that look I wanted.”

To view more of Moeller’s work, visit www.agentmoeller.com.

Charity Golf Tournament to Benefit Local Families

Dr. Bruce Klier, Debbie and Steve Patag and Chief Probation Officer Mack Jenkins play golf in the 2011 VIP Golf Tournament.There are people on probation who strive to re-enter society but struggle to pay for things like eye exams, bus passes or literacy instruction. Enter Volunteers in Probation, a non-profit organization that provides funds for these kinds of needs.

As a fundraiser, Volunteers in Probation is planning a shot-gun start golf tournament to benefit the men and women who follow the terms of their probation and work hard to support their families.  

“We anticipate that it will sell out,” said Guadalupe Rabago, supervising probation officer. “This tournament is our biggest fundraising event.”

The 16^th annual tournament will begin at noon, June 22 at the DoubleTree Golf Resort in San Diego.   The $115 entry fee includes the vintage-themed golf tournament, 18 holes and a cart lunch. It will continue until 4 p.m. and will be followed by dinner, a silent auction and the raffle winners announcement.

Not only can county employees join the tournament, they are invited to contribute items or services to the silent auction such as themed gift baskets or gift cards that can be included in other gift baskets, Rabago said.

All the money raised pays for items or services which are not otherwise provided by public funds or other community resources, said Rabago. Those items or services can also include job training, scholarships, clothing vouchers, tattoo removal and emergency needs, he said.

“One of the biggest things we’ve done is to create holiday baskets for a select few probationer families (who were in need),” Rabago said.

He said they are also seeking members who want be on the board of directors and help plan future events including their upcoming Halloween Bowling Tournament.

“We are looking for people with all kinds of experience who are interested in doing good in their community,” Rabago said. 

To sign up for the golf tournament or learn more about Volunteers in Probation, visit http://www.volunteersinprobation.org/.

The Incredible Shrinking Woman

BHS employee Sian Mulder was the "biggest loser" for the second year in a row and is now half the size of when she started with the program.

The Health and Human Services Agency Behavioral Health Services (BHS) staff has gotten smaller – in body weight that is. More than two dozen BHS employees participated in their third “Biggest Loser” program. 

This year’s 15-week challenge just wrapped up with 26 participants losing a total of 233 pounds. That works out to 4.5% of their collective starting weight.

Sian Mulder was the official BHS Biggest Loser for the second year in a row. She was down a whopping 16.6% of her starting weight.

After going through a rough patch, Mulder decided it was time to get back to the healthier, more athletic lifestyle of her youth. In fact, as a result of both years’ combined weight loss she is now half the size of when she started!

In order to achieve her weight loss, Mulder started making better food choices and took up Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, a form of mixed martial arts that provides a calorie-burning, stress-relieving work out.

“Everyone is a winner,” said Mulder. “How can you lose when you are making changes to better yourself and your lifestyle?”

The BHS group celebrated their successes with a salad bar potluck. They continue to offer each other on-going encouragement to make healthy choices.

New County Entomologist Has an Eye for Bugs

Tracy Ellis looks at bugs. Up close. Every day.

As the County’s new entomologist, she examines about 2,000 insect specimens each month from traps that are set out around the County and samples brought in from incoming and outgoing plant shipments. She looks for any invasive insects or those carrying diseases that pose a threat or could even decimate San Diego County agriculture. The most dangerous ones she’s looking for now include the Asian citrus psyllid that carries the Huanglongbing disease (HLB); any of the exotic fruit flies such as the Mexican, the Mediterranean, Oriental, or new world guava fruit fly; or the tea shot hole borer, an insect from Asia that carries a disease that threatens avocado trees and is already infesting backyard trees in Los Angeles County.

Being the County entomologist is not a position one just steps into. She worked with Dr. David Kellum, her predecessor, for four years, has served as a plant health and quarantine inspector and has the required agricultural inspector licenses.

Dr. Ellis — she has a Ph.D. in entomology from Iowa State University — has been fascinated by insects since she was a little girl growing up in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.

In high school, her first field project sent her to Washington State to study stream insects in Olympia State Park. Her college senior thesis, done while interning at the USDA, measured the effectiveness of using parasitic wasps to control the Colorado potato beetle — a serious pest of potatoes, tomatoes and eggplants that has actually developed resistance to some pesticides – and ironically a bug that is not a pest in Colorado.

“I’ve always had an interest in all sorts of biology, plants, soils, and insects,” said Dr. Ellis. “Insects are a huge part of the environment; so I decided early on to make that my life’s work.”

Along the way, she’s earned support and grants from the Explorer’s Club in New York, the Noyes Agricultural Foundation and the private sector. She earned a scholarship to Hampshire College in Amherst, and published scientific papers that got her accepted to Iowa State’s doctoral program. She’s worked for the New England Small Farm Center and School of Natural Science, a Massachusetts organic farm, a Midwestern seed company and a San Diego biotechnology company.

Before joining the County, Dr. Ellis’s specialty was developing methods for rearing insects and testing insecticides on them. She was part of the team that brought the first generation of genetically engineered microbial insecticides to the market for spray-on applications as well as developing the first transgenic plants for insect control. She is also the co-author of several patents in the field.

Like many East Coast transplants, Tracy came here with her parents to escape the winters in Boston. She recounts sitting on the sidewalk, watching the St. Patrick’s Day parade and loving the warm sunshine. After completing her education, she returned. Still later, while working in private industry, she turned down a company move back to the Midwest in order to remain in San Diego.

 “It means a lot to me to live in San Diego; it’s a very special place to me,” she said

In her position with the County, she identifies insects submitted by pest detection staff (the trappers), agricultural inspectors, landscapers, growers, and even the backyard gardener. In the case of the Asian citrus psyllid, she looks under a magnifier at yellow sticky traps at the rate of 1,500 per month for the three-millimeter insect and to determine if specimens are infected with HLB. While the insect has been discovered in San Diego County, primarily south of I-8, it is only recently that a specimen was found in Hacienda Heights carrying HLB disease.

“If any infected citrus trees are found here,” she said, “they would have to be uprooted and destroyed – whether in someone’s background, or in an abandoned grove. But that would be a small price to pay to save a $276 million citrus industry in the state.”

If you would like assist in the trapping process and help protect San Diego’s $1.6 billion agriculture industry, contact pest detection through e-mail at  AWM.pd@sdcounty.ca.gov  or phone toll free 1-800-300-TRAP (8727).

Employees in Weight Watchers Shed Half a Ton

 HR Analyst Anne Calle is seen here before and after she lost 50 pounds while enrolled in Weight Watchers at Work.

What do a Jersey cow, four NFL players and a Harley Davidson three wheel motorcycle have in common?

They all weigh about a half ton, or 1,000 lbs.   

That’s also how much weight a group of county employees has shed in recent months.

As of the end of April, 75 county employees enrolled in a Weight Watchers at Work program had lost  a combined 1,002 lbs., said Gabriela Berry, Human Resources Services Manager in the County’s Department of Human Resources. Berry and Deputy Human Resources Director Jan Mazone coordinate the San Diego County Employee Wellness Program, which launched in January. 

“I just gave away my whole wardrobe,” said Anne Calle, a Senior Human Resources Analyst for the County.  

Calle, whose Weight Watchers group meets at the County Operations Center, has contributed 50 lbs. towards the staggering overall total. And she says she’s not done. She hopes to lose another 30 lbs.

She credits her regimen of counting food’s point values, eating healthier and rising early to work out six days a week. The program is flexible enough that she didn’t have to drastically alter her lifestyle.

She said the shared common goal with her colleagues – and weekly weigh-ins--have inspired her too.

Calle’s group is one of five around the county that meets weekly. County employees have also formed Weight Watchers groups at the Hall of Justice downtown, the County Administration Center, the Public Health Services Complex - Rosecrans and the Mills Building/Trolley Towers on Imperial Avenue.

An initial pilot program launched last summer at the County Operations Center. Berry said that the effort worked out so well that the County expanded the program in February as part of the County’s Wellness Program.

County employees enroll in the Weight Watchers program and cover the costs. To start a new group, at least 15 employees must sign up and agree to meet regularly with a Weight Watchers representative.

There’s no end date in sight for the programs, said both Calle and Berry.

“I plan to become a lifetime member after I reach my goal weight,” Calle said.

She’s already bought some new clothes—and taken them to the tailor for re-fitting.