Q&A with Ofelia Velarde-Garcia, Business Services Analyst
Ofelia Velarde-Garcia and Bella Coveyou host the Landscaper Open House at Prima Deshecha Landfill.
Question (Q): How did the Girl Scout project with Bella Coveyou evolve?
Answer (A): Angel An, from Strategic Communications and I met a local mom, Rosanna, at the compost giveaway event last November at Prima. At that time, she indicated her daughter Bella was a junior in high school at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano and was working on her Girl Scout Gold Award on composting. She indicated Bella was a member of the St. Margaret’s Equestrian Team and has been riding horses since the third grade. She shared Bella was taking AP Environmental Science and was very passionate about both the environment and equestrian community. It was delightful to hear that her Girl Scout project was focused on environmental sustainability and the environmental impact of horse manure. Rosanna helped put Bella in touch with us.
Bella’s initial ask was for Prima to take in more horse manure for her equestrian community, which we cannot do. So, her project evolved to focus increasing demand for our material in the San Juan Capistrano landscaper community. She asked to partner with OCWR to address this issue, and our Strategic Communications group created a flier and postcard in English and Spanish that targeted local residential landscapers. Her goal was to reach at least 10-20 local gardeners through this targeted marketing effort. She wanted to achieve this by going door-to-door and speaking with property owners and landscapers, handing out fliers and postcards, also sharing on OCWR social media/OCWR newsletter. She believed the estimated impact of additional compost pick-ups by each gardener would address the issue in a scalable and sustainable way, and in turn preserve valuable landfill space and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
I’d also like to mention her landscaper, Pascual Gonzales. Without him, I believe half of the landscapers that signed up would not have known about our program. He showed up on the first Saturday and at least seven landscapers came because of his testimony about our material and the ease of applying and getting a pass. I had three from Lake Elsinore area that solely work in San Juan Capistrano. (Pascual deserves some recognition, too!)
Interestingly enough, when I signed up Pascual in October of last year, he mentioned to me that his client had been asking him to pick up organic material from OCWR. He said she’d been asking him for almost a year until he finally gave in to call OCWR. Unbeknownst to me, this was Bella’s mom. Small world!
Q: What was your role?
A:
Helped with translating fliers into Spanish
Hosted two Landscaper Open Houses at Prima
Signed up a total of 13 landscapers – majority Spanish-speaking
Processed compost passes and got them approved by Deputy Director, David Tieu within two business days
Q: How was Prima involved?
A: Prima helped set-up an area for us to sign-up landscapers (they put out a canopy, table, and two chairs) and also directional signage at the site. They scheduled extra greenery staff to ensure self-haul public piles were filled with extra compost and mulch in anticipation of additional landscaper traffic and FSA tagged any landscaper vehicles picking up for the first time at the greenery.
Q: How do you feel the project was handled?
A: Paulina Joseph from Strategic Communications and Prima staff did a fantastic job. There was help marketing the events by designing the flyers and promoting on social media, and I believe a couple of local print/digital papers. Prima helped by scheduled staff (OT) to accommodate the extra traffic at the site on both days.
Q: Do you have any words for Bella and her future?
A: It was a true delight to meet and collaborate with Bella. She is bright, diligent, and genuinely passionate about the environment. She is an inspiring example for people of all ages in the quest to protect our environment/planet.
