County Public Safety Employees Win Big Prizes on the Price is Right

Like most locals, you were likely glued to wildfire coverage on TV last week, and you may have missed a salute to firefighters on the "Price is Right," which aired Friday, May 16. Some of San Diego County’s firefighters and emergency dispatchers answered the call to “Come on Down,” and came away with thousands of dollars in prizes.

To watch the full episode, click on this link. Otherwise, keep reading to get the scoop.

Who among these San Diego Sheriff, San Diego Police and Escondido Police, and California Highway Patrol dispatchers won the biggest prize package on the show? Sheriff’s lead dispatcher Ann McCorkell, that’s who! She nabbed a trip for two for 7 days, 6 nights at a bed and breakfast in Tuscany, Italy worth more than $12,000! 

“It’s a trip of a lifetime,” said McCorkell, who plans to take her daughter, who will turn 21 in the fall. McCorkell has been a dispatcher for nearly 19 years.

 

Every year, dispatchers arrange a bus trip to the Price is Right show, and they are on a winning streak. So far, someone from the group has been called up for a chance to play on each trip, said McCorkell. She never imagined she’d hear the announcer yell out her name this time around.

And, she had good reason to be skeptical. This was her second time playing on the show and her second win! She played in 2003 with Bob Barker and won a $72,000 showcase that included a big screen television, 10 1-pound gold bars, $10,000 cash, and two Chrysler Sebring convertibles.

When Barker was in charge, his rule was no one can go on the show again after a win. But, that rule changed to a 10-year wait when Drew Carey came on as host. She waited 11 years, and she told the show’s pre-screener all this, so she assumed they would not choose her again.

So, why did she get called? She guesses it was her energy and enthusiasm during the pre-screen interview.

Another winner on the show was Palomar Volunteer Fire Chief Clifford Kellogg, who has been a firefighter for 17 years, 11 years with Palomar. He was one of the first four contestants called and he won three wristwatches worth approximately $500.

Kellogg had been asked to coordinate the bus trip up for the San Diego County Fire Authority Volunteer Program. He admitted he is not a regular viewer of the show, so he never expected to be called up and he felt a little lost.

“I lost the dice game so I didn’t win the car,” Kellogg said. “All in all, it was a very interesting experience.”

But that’s not all; it turns out everyone in the audience won a two night stay at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. Furthermore, after the show taping stops, the show does a few more giveaways with the audience. San Diego County Probation Officer Dionne Murphy won $100 cash. 

You may remember another San Diego County volunteer firefighter won big on the Price is Right during last year’s Salute to Firefighters show: Joe Pellegrini, 22, who was then assigned to rural fire stations, won an iPad, iPad mini and a new car. He gave the Honda Civic LX to his mother as a belated surprise Mother’s Day gift.

RELATED: Volunteer Firefighter Wins Big on Game Show 

Thanks for reading this and don’t forget to get your pets spayed and neutered and help control the pet population.

Asian Pacific Alliance of County Employees Kicks Off

Your colleagues celebrated the launch of the new ERG Asian Pacific Alliance of County Employees. 

The event, held during Asian Pacific Heritage Month, was at the COC on May 13, 2014.

Check out photos from the kick off.

County Employees Enjoy New Waterfront Park

It may be San Diego's front porch, but for some County employees, the Waterfront Park is also their workplace.

Check out photos from your colleagues from the Grand Opening on May 10 and send in your own snapshots to communications@sdcounty.ca.gov.

Blood and Marrow Drives Draw Employee Generosity

Greg Murphy was one of hundreds of County employees who donated blood last month as part of the 30th Annual County Employees Blood Drive.

Employees donated far more blood during this year’s 30^th Annual County Employees Blood Drive than last year’s, giving a total of 341 pints. That easily tops last year’s total of 288 pints.

In addition, 43 people registered for the Be The Match marrow registry, which benefits patients fighting more than 70 different diseases, including blood cancers or sickle cell anemia.

The drive made a total of 12 stops at County offices throughout the month of April. It is one of the largest and most important in the region each year, according to the San Diego Blood Bank. The donations allow hospitals to keep a critically needed supply of blood.

Many first-time donors showed up at the County’s drive this year, said Juan Olmeda, a Communicable Disease Investigator/Border Health Assistant and leukemia survivor who helps organize the blood and marrow drives at the County. Of the 397 potential blood donors who came forward, 111 were first timers.

There’s yet another chance to donate blood this Saturday at the Waterfront Park Grand Opening. The San Diego Blood Bank’s Bloodmobile will be available from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. along Harbor Drive near Ash Street at the County Administration Center.  Appointments are recommended but walk-ins are welcome. To sign up or for more information, visit the San Diego Blood Bank website or call 1-800-MY-4SDBB (469-7322). The County also keeps an Employee Blood Drive Web page.

Operational Plan Reflects Journey to World Class

As the County introduces its Operational Plan and budget for the coming fiscal year, we offer this video overview of how we run and where we’re going next. Read full Operational Plan.

Getting a Kick Out of Live Well

HHSA North Coastal Family Resource Center employees have been playing soccer together and were their division's regular season champions. Front row (l to r): Alejandra Mejia-Rios, Rosa Torres, Veronica Chicas, Kristina Hernandez, Robert Hood. Back row: Eduardo Hernandez, Robin Dunbar, Jose Aguero, Noe Quiroz.

A group of co-workers from HHSA’s North Coastal Family Resource Center leaves behind the eligibility forms, phone calls and cubicles and take to the field every Sunday during the City of San Marcos’ co-ed indoor soccer season.

They do it for stress relief, to share a few laughs and to bond with co-workers. But it’s more than just fun and games.

It’s serious competition and they’re not messing around.

The team was second half regular season champions with a 7-3 record and finished as runners-up in the playoffs.

“Last season we made the playoff and lost in the first game,” said Noe Quiroz. “We’re making progress.”

There are 15 players on the team. Nine of them are HHSA employees and the rest are family members.

“So we were able to not only bond with our teammates, but their families as well,” said Kristina Hernandez.

Hernandez was the catalyst for starting the team.

They were all inspired by the County’s Live Well San Diego initiative and discovered several co-workers previously played or were interested in taking up soccer.

“It was not difficult to form a team,” said Hernandez. “Some players were playing for the first time, so we would have practices to form better chemistry amongst us.”

“The chemistry here at work helped out a lot and has helped us on our communications skills,” said Robin Dunbar.

The whole office has gotten into the spirit and has been very supportive of the team.

“I just started in this office last July and I didn’t know anyone but I really got to know all my co-workers through soccer,” said Robert Hood. “You get to let loose on the soccer field and our co-workers come out and cheer us on.”

One co-worker, Benno Davis, has really gotten into supporting the team. Hood said he’s their biggest cheerleader.

“He’s a fanatic,” agreed Eddie Hernandez. “He’s even brought a megaphone to the games.”

The encouragement is needed because it can get quite rough-and-tumble out there. Almost every player on the team has been injured at some point.

“There’s lots of sprinting and running around,” said Jose Aguero. “It’s very fast-paced.”

Rosa Torres pointed to a bruise on her shin. “This bruise is from last Sunday.”

Eddie said the first question they get asked on Monday mornings isn’t if they won or lost, it’s if they’re sore.

The bottom line according to Hood: “It’s just for fun and to get out of the office and run around for an hour.”

The team won’t get much rest, either. They have to have their paperwork in for the next half-season in just two weeks.

The team with their second place trophy from the playoffs last weekend..

Our 'Guardian of Water' Has a Sister

This Guardian of Water stands in Yokohama, Japan, San Diego's sister city.

She may stand tall and proud in front of the County Administration Center here in San Diego, but the “Guardian of Water” has a twin sculpture that resides nearly 5,600 miles away. And County employee Ellen Heigert recently got an up close look at it while in vacation in Yokohama, Japan.

This Guardian of Water stands on the west side of the SD County

“It was an accidental stumble,” said Heigert, who works in the Health and Human Service Agency’s Behavioral Health Services. “We took the water taxi that loops around the bay and happened to disembark at the foot of the park where the statue is located.”

The “Guardian of Water” sculpture fountain sits on the harbor side of the County Administration Center and was designed by local artist Donal Hord, who sculpted it over two years from a 22-ton granite block from a Lakeside quarry. It features a figure of a pioneer woman holding a water jug — symbolic of San Diego’s guardianship over one of its most precious resources — and was dedicated on June 10, 1939, in a ceremony at the new Civic Center (now the CAC).

In 1960, a replica of the “Guardian of Water” was sent over to Yokohama, Japan, as a gift from the San Diego-Yokohama Friendship Commission and emphasizing the sculpture’s significance in San Diego history.

“I was very surprised to see that San Diego had followed me across the Pacific!” Heigert said. “The park in which the statue is located was beautifully landscaped with spring flowers; and that particular day was sunny and clear and many people and dogs were enjoying the outdoors.  The boardwalk there is similar to the one on Harbor Drive and takes you right into the heart of the city.”

Yokohama gave San Diego this Friendship Bell in 1958.

It was actually a gift exchange, and you may be familiar with the other half. In 1958, Yokohama sent San Diego a 6-foot-high bronze bell housed in a pavilion structure typically seen in Japan. The “Friendship Bell” has no clapper inside and weighs nearly 2.5 tons and was dedicated in 1960. You can check it out on Shelter Island at 1401 Shelter Island Drive.

Read more about the “Guardian of Water” and how it came to be and check out a documentary from the 1930s on it.

Lunch Honors Employees That Keep County Afloat

They keep the County afloat and Wednesday, 340 County administrative professionals took to the seas for a lunch honoring all they do.

The annual Administrative Professionals Luncheon was held aboard the Inspiration Hornblower; and as it circled the bay, the admins enjoyed a three-course meal, heard from guest speaker Richard Lederer and took part in a raffle for prizes.

Chief Information Officer Mikel Haas spoke to the group of admins with appreciation for all they do.

"You run this County," Haas said.

The event was put on by the Finance & General Government Group and headed by Committee Chair Leslie Albrecht.

Check out the slideshow above for photos from the event or view the gallery here.

Hiking Their Way to Friendships, Fulfillment

 Some members of the hiking club take a break for a photo on a recent outing at Daley Ranch in Escondido last month.

Sande Pence hadn’t been with the Department of Environmental Health long when she got to talking with a co-worker about one of her favorite topics: hiking.

Pence, a Supervising Environmental Health Specialist, has always been drawn to the outdoors. So had co-worker Brita Lum, then an Environmental Health Specialist. Both yearned to get back into the activity, after years of focusing more on other parts of life: marriage, children, careers. But they didn’t want to take the trails alone.

“We said how great it would be to have somebody to else to hike with,” Pence said.  

They agreed to go together sometime.

Nearly six years later, the duo continues to hit up the trails of San Diego County—and beyond—on a regular basis. Their passion has spread. Pence and Lum formed a hiking club and now dozens of current and former co-workers in DEH, Agriculture, Weights and Measures and the Department of Public Works join them on monthly hiking adventures. The group has hiked so many trails that they’ve started to double back and do the same ones a second time. They’ve done the well-trod trails at Torrey Pines State Reserve and Cowles Mountain, but then moved to more enterprising hikes like at Volcan Mountain Wilderness Preserve near Julian, the Cuyamaca and Laguna Mountains and the County’s Hellhole Canyon Preserve near Valley Center.

These aren’t just casual walks. While the tone is fun and casual, the group is serious about getting a good workout. Hikes usually run at least three to five miles, but some have gone a lot farther. A few years ago, a group even made it to the summit of Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states, in the Inyo National Forest.

Last month, about 10 hiking club members met at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning at Daley Ranch in Escondido. Under hazy skies, they showed up in comfortable exercise clothes, some with hiking poles, maps and jugs of water. From there, the group hiked about seven miles, doing a big loop across the ranch’s beautiful, rocky green terrain.  

Their next hike will be at Rattlesnake Canyon in Poway on May 10.

Members of the club have ventured far beyond just hiking, into other types of exercise, too. They go on bike rides together, and some even participate in a triathlon together once a year.

This all adds up to a lot of calories burned. And in some cases, dramatic health improvements.

“We’ve seen people’s bodies and health transform,” said Mary Lou White, a member of the group and a Rural Generalist for DEH. The group has helped inspire one member with diabetes to get out and exercise.

A combination of exercise and better eating have helped Pence to lose 50 pounds since she co-founded the group. She got so into bicycling that she now rides her bike to work every day from her home in Escondido to the DEH office in San Marcos. The changes have pushed down her blood pressure and cholesterol, and she is no longer at risk for diabetes or high blood pressure like before.

“I think for me anyways, having motivation and support from people who have similar interests helps me stay, on track and stay focused,” Pence said. “I think it is part of my success.”  

Lum, who left her position at DEH in 2010 to focus on caring for her children, said it was her love and appreciation for nature that initially drew her to hiking. The friendships she has formed with others who share that same enthusiasm has been the biggest benefit.

When you’ve hiked “endless miles” with a person you get to know “all the little things about them,” she said.
And “it is incredibly therapeutic talking to people who may be struggling with the same issues that you have or have had in the past,” she said. “Not only is it good for your physical health but your mental health as well.”

Lum, who is training for a marathon now, said after she and Pence finish a big hiking trip together, “we literally feel like the mountain has washed us clean. It’s the best feeling ever!”

There’s a quote by the iconic naturalist John Muir that perfectly sums up what Pence said draws her to the outdoors and what inspired her and Lum to set off on hikes in the first place. It’s from Muir’s 1918 book, “Steep Trails,” a collection of his writings about traveling the American West: “But in every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.”

For more information, or to join the hiking club, contact Sande Pence at Sande.Pence@sdcounty.ca.gov.

A view from the hiking club's most recent outing at Daley Ranch in Escondido last month.