Honoring Jonelle Verdugo, Memorial at the Monterey Bay Aquarium held October 27, 2023.

you all sit there Michelle excellent good evening everyone uh for those you don't know me my name is Paul Clarkson I'm the director of husbandry operations here at the aquarium and worked very closely with Janelle for quite some time we're assembled here tonight to honor and pay tribute to the life and work of Janelle Verdugo our dear friend colleague and 25e employee of the aquarium I'm honored to welcome tonight some of Janelle's family her parents Laura and John sister Michelle Partner Tom and others her many many friends from the extended Aquarian family friends that share Janelle's passion of you too and succulents and the many of you that traveled significant distances to be with us here tonight it's if anything it's wonderful to see everybody get together U before we get going this evening I'm I'm going to ask for your patience with something um while I generally hate to read from a script when I speak in public I think I need the crutch here tonight just to manage some emotions so thank you for the patience and I'll try to keep it together as I look around the Aquarian this evening I suspect Janelle would have very mixed feelings and comments about seeing you all gathered here I have no doubt she'd be incredibly touched to see so many of us assembled to honor her in her last weeks with us Janelle shared the that quote I've been overwhelmed and humbled by all the love and support I've been receiving and I feel really blessed to be part of this NBA family end quote that support Janelle received it was an obvious indication of how much she was loved and respected around here and how much a part of the aquarium fabric that she had become she earned that love and support through all of the love and support that she gave to us over her 25 years of aquarium service but most of us also realize that uh Janelle would probably be a little bit irritated by all the fuss we're making tonight uh Janelle never wanted things to be about her she walked the world humbly and quietly and placed the focus on others not herself she didn't create attention or credit truth be told she'd probably be a bit appalled that I'm up here speaking in front of 200 people about her guaranteed she'd probably make some snarky comment about me wearing a tie which is part of the reason I'm wearing it tonight but I've got my Vans on like I see many of you do so here to represent so to honor Janelle's spirit and her habit of putting attention on others we're going to try to keep the program brief tonight if we can a few of us are going to share some words and thoughts over the next half an hour or so but the focus on this evening is to bring Janelle's family friends and her acquiring family together in one place to share memories of her honor her life life and work and commune together in love and friendship that said unlike my dear colleague Janelle I'm not usually want to be brief with words so if you'll indulge me for a few minutes I'd like to share some of my memories of our friend so I first met Janelle in 2008 I was brand new to the aquarium at that time I was assigned to be Janelle's new manager and Janelle was just beginning her new role as associate curator big deal for her we were essentially thrown together and hadn't met each other prior to day one of our new working relationship but we worked together in this capacity for the next 15 years it's the longest I've ever supervised someone and the longest Janelle had ever been supervised by another it wasn't long that I I remember this vividly after I first met Janelle that I started asking myself just like who is this unique and bizarre creature somebody came up it might have even been John um that very early on introduced me to Janelle and said hey have you met Janelle yet she really loves you too and I thought that was a little odd cuz you know I really like man Halen but I don't necessarily leave with it in an introduction and since I over often overly rely on humor to connect with people it wasn't long before I think I made some crack to Janelle about Bono's receiving hairline yeah and that was my that was like my first introduction to what I started to call janel's look um I I learned over time that Janelle could give me a look um that took a number of forms sometimes it was some sideways glance and pursed lips at me sometimes she' Square her shoulders up at me and sometimes she would just kind of half raise her hand in a meeting um that half raised hand was essentially the equivalent of a normal person like screaming from the top of the building right it usually meant that Janelle had something really important to say and that I shut up and pay attention um Janelle typically didn't make a point unless it was really important to her the first important point I learned don't disparage Bono ever that was the last time first and last but aside from jelle's spaun and at times unhealthy commitment to Bono The Edge Adam and Larry yes I mentioned all their names Janelle tonight you would be happy but Janelle rarely wore her passions on her sleeve for those who didn't know Janelle well she likely came across as softspoken laidback and reserved but I came to realize that Janelle simply wasn't someone to force her opinions her values her likes or dislikes on others again she walked the world quietly and hungry time and time again I learned something new about Janelle that it it thing it felt like it came out of the blue I was like wait a minute Janelle you have a Lego city in your house that you've been building for years and I'm just now hearing about this you want to be on American Ninja War Warrior someday you just tried pesto for the first time in your life these things just kind of came out of nowhere but once you chipped past Janelle's quiet exterior shell it revealed a treasure Trove of legendary quirks and passions and that was something so key to understanding Janelle that quiet and reserved demeanor hid a person who was tremendously passionate and dedicated to the things in her life that were most important to her and what I so respected about Janelle after working alongside all these years was the depth of her commitment to three things our people our animals and our place not necessarily in that order at first like most of us who work in Animal Care Janelle first connected with our critters and let's be honest um she usually far preferred the company of animals over people at list at least initially after her 25 years of work with our animal collection Janelle's influence and input can be felt in nearly every exhibit and with every tax that in our building she worked with birds when she first started here she worked as a seaotter feeder she worked in or supervised work happening in nearly every corner of this building from tuna to Turtles to mobular rays sting bats as she like to call them to seapods to sharks to everything in between except snakes never snakes for anyone who remembers wild bad otter and the vine snakes that was not Janelle's deal um but when you walk through the Ocean Edge Gallery later tonight uh you'll know that you'll be surrounded by Janelle's influence and spirit everywhere and early in her career of course Janelle famously became known as the seahorse lady and when you think about it seahorses suited Janelle perfectly right seahorses are small their food is small the babies are even smaller heck even the equipment that you use to take care of them is small all those things resonated with J's worky love of tiny things and ultimately Janelle's passion and skill helped us bring to life the secet lives of seahorses known most to us just as slos I think Jan might have coined that term slos as well uh Slash went on to become one of the most popular exhibitions in Aquarian history and was extended multiple times due to that success and that success would not have been possible without Janelle Janelle served as a subject matter expert and team lead for the entire run of that show over many years her heart her soul and her passion were as important to that exhibit as the studs were in the walls unfortunately the grind that was Slash for those that you don't know seahorses are a lot of work It ultimately will say tempered uh Janelle's love of working with seahorses and other seives U many of you know that we are planning to bring back Seahorses on our upcoming uh remodel Splash Zone and part of me is convinced that jelle left us when she did just to get out of working with another damn sea war SE nice timing JB um although I'm sure she's laughing at us about that somewhere we know we'll have to knock that new exhibit out of the park in her honor Janelle was unwavering in her commitment to our animals Janelle was also tremendously committed to our place this wonderful aquarium having been here for 25 years Janelle worked closely with many of the people who built the aquarium and established our standards of excellence so early on and Janelle passionately dedicated herself to upholding that vision and those standards throughout her Decades of service this was really most evident in her commitment to the quality of our live exhibits Janelle had wonderfully detailed eye for exhibitory she pushed all of us to uphold the highest of standards and the quality of our exhibits their cleanliness and how accurately they represented wild habitats she was an apostle of the golden hours the quiet time in the morning before guests are in the building and Janelle always kept us on task and focused in that way whenever something surfaced that might compromise those golden hours get a look and our exhibit standards should now would quickly reel us back in and help us recalibrate she was always committed to our place lastly and I'm addressing this last on purpose was Chanelle's commitment to our people again I'm certain that Janelle prefer to spend time with her dogs over most humans um and again like most people who get into Animal Care you know she initially would have been content to spend spend her time in the back of some dark Gallery somewhere caring for algae all day and not seeing another Soul when I first started supervising Janelle she had just become a people manager for the first time and I'd say that she was initially a reluctant manager she faced frustrations early on and on more than one occasion I had to talk her off the ledge and convince her to stick around and and stick with this management thing for just a little bit longer uh cuz let's face it you know Janelle was smart and she knew that people were a pain in the butt and animals were easier but steadily and surely we saw Janelle blossom into dare I say it a people person she'd be again criticizing me for saying that about her she applied the skills that made her so talented as an aquarius her attention to detail her commitment to standards and her ability to nurture life and applied it to the care of her team members and nurture she did something I I most appreciated about what Janelle brought to management was her eye for hidden talent Janelle sang for the unsown uh because Janelle so often walked through life in a quiet and understated way she was really really good about seeing potential in less than obvious places there are several people in this room who I've seen tonight already who may not know it but they're here in part today because Janelle recognized something in them early on and advocating advocated for them in a really meaningful way I really came to rely on Janelle for that a great deal over the years years I learned to trust her Instinct in people and potential implicitly and Janelle so loved and respected the people whom she worked most closely with just two weeks before she passed away Janelle sent me an email titled I have an awesome team they don't need me was very Janelle uh this wasn't meant at all to be self-critical though Janelle even in her final days was thinking only of her people and recognizing them for their work in the email she proceeded to list a series of re team accomplishments and noted how proud she was of their work and how grateful she was for their commitment in her absence and she never took credit for those successes she always gave her team full credit and all the respect for their work Janelle's commitment to our animals our place and our people never waned even during her last days with us famously and most of us know this Janelle almost never took a sick day her sick time approval at the here at the aquarium was like always p get 400 hours which is the most you could ever have um and sometime finally during the final days of her cancer fight Janelle sent us a message an email and said sorry for the last minutess of this but I decided to take a week off aside from a few doctor's appointments here and there that's really the only appreciable time that Janelle took off from work during her illness and it's because she was just simply too devoted to her team and our work to step back completely she was dedicated tenacious and rightfully damn proud of what so many of you have built here but although Janelle ultimately found her calling and working with people over the years her aversion to too many humans in one place was never too far from the surface believe me um as Janelle ended most of her work weeks with us she would typically send out an end of week update to her co-managers through email and often uh Janelle would rate the size of the crowds in the aquarium on a given day today by the smell that the humans made in our galleries so we occasionally get emailed stink reports from Janelle on Saturday afternoon if it was stinky that means it was really crowded and when we finally reopened after a 14-month closure due to co Janelle's update that week read well it happened the aquarium is open people are roaming kids are laughing babies are screaming and aquaris are hiding and the number of people spread out throughout the building was just about a perfect amount if we have to have people here and that was something else we have always loved about Janelle uh her wit and snark were always reliable and welcome and I so so miss that rise sense of humor so Janelle uh we all miss you dearly we will do our best to honor You by continuing to honor what was important to you here the animals our people and our place thank [Applause] [Music] you we have a few other folks that might not be as longed as I am but I would like to also say a few words Julie would you like to come up oh that was wonderful I learned so much so I'm Julie Packer executive director that Coran and it's wonderful to have the family and friends here I didn't get the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Janelle but I we work on the same floor for all those years in what we call the admin building and um Janelle was just legendary on on the team and of course our Animal Care team is legendary in the world in ation you know among all the and uh Janelle just was always the most quiet but um I could tell she was the most ke oriented positive person for people to be around you know I never saw her uh never heard anything about her you know being involved in any you know snarky stuff or anything you know never a bad word about the colleagues but our specific interaction was that she would take care of the plants in the executive office now the executive office is on the same floor with all the Animal Care folks the Animal Care folks their offices if you've been there it's pretty crazy it's kind of wild pandemonium it's animal people you got skeletons and plants and games and you know there's a skeleton with a costume on computer and I when we move back into our space I'm like okay well I got donors coming in up elevator but whatever you got like you know what Harry Potter you know gr for you part of anyway super fun very cool and I was trying to put together you know Janelle's when I saw Janelle's Persona you know and I realized I miss so much of Janelle she is part of your Animal Care super fun team and um such a close family and she was presented you know as such a quiet professional and I know I'm you know said to be I'm the CEO I'm kind of a dating and scary person so um so I just regret I didn't get to know her better but uh whenever any of us in our office were going away on vacation think about Janelle she would take care of the house plants and people always give us plants people give me Orchid and this and that like and just kill them par everyone in my office like when people go with these plants we would come back Janelle had taken care of any living thing I mean any living thing even some you know or someone gave you that you were wishing like wow what going to kill this for sure so um what Paul said about her incredible incredible connection with all things living uh clearly manifested in her life in in every way and she was just um just such a treasure of her so privileged that we had time with her I know that she influenced so many other people coming up through the ranks in the aquarium and um I'm sure especially a lot of the women that we have in our Animal Care team when we began the aquarium um there really weren't currently any women in the field at all just saying and now I'm so proud of um of the incredible uh incredible bunch of women we have working in animal care so thank you thank you for giving us Janelle and um my heart goes out to your family and thing about having a career or the aquarium is her Legacy will live on that's the wonderful thing her influence will be here forever so thank you [Applause] thank you juli and Paul for those wonderful and touching words um it is very heartwarming to look out and see this assemblage of people here tonight and um I um going to refer to my notes here because I'm going to struggle like Paul getting through this if I don't read this but it is a very telling reflection of the quality of Janelle's person and the inspiration that she afforded all of us and my name is John and again I really appreciate seeing you all tonight it has been it has been a difficult time and I think that I can speak on behalf of everybody here uh and expressing gratitude for everybody here coming together again such a great reflection of who Janelle is and it's not just local people as Paul mentioned we had people come from all over the nation here today from the East Coast as far away is Hawaii uh from the North and the South uh it really is quite remarkable and really quite touching and I am now going to return to reading so please bear with me I've known jalette Janelle and worked closely with her for the entire 25 years that she was here at the aquarium and it is an absolute honor and a privilege to stand here before you today and share a few words much of which will Echo what Julie and Paul had to say I know Janelle as a person who is very much loved respected and greatly appreciated for her personality and for her remarkably Stout commitment to the mission of ocean conservation and all that her profession demanded Janelle's DED dedication to her work and her sense of responsibility is commendable quite remarkable really we heard Paul Express the sentiment earlier and I believe the concept of a workday shorter than 8 hours was absolutely incomprehensible ible to Janelle the thought of taking time off and claiming sick time as Paul mentioned very uncomfortable to her her commitment to the aquarium our staff the animals and the plants was nothing shy of exceptional Janelle took great pride and demonstrated remarkable attention to detail in her laser focus on Animal Care and it was that way as it has always done been so up to her final few days I know a few two people who carried such dedication and commitment to duty selflessness and serving she was grateful are we touched and influenced are many I know Mr and Mrs Verdugo Michelle Tom that you do not need to hear these words in order to carry a great sense of Pride for your daughter your sister and your partner but I do hope that you can embrace the thought of How Deeply Janelle was respected and carry forth a profound sense of Janelle's influence within the part of her world that we here at the aquarium have had the honor and pleasure of being a part of for so long many people over the years pardon me and it is not just those of us here today and those unable to attend that she influen been supported over 25 years and with 1.8 million people walking through these doors a year Janelle left a mark on the young the old people of all walks of life a Mark that has meaning and profound significance for Humanity and our oceans her unwavering dedication shall not be forgotten and we shall all carry this remembrance forward with gratitude and appreciation many people over the years and still now as we share stories and memories have thought and spoken fondly of Janelle's pass passs the word passion in the context of Janelle kind of falls short really maybe convictions devotions loyalties Paul I think you said unhealthy commitments uh I don't know uh whatever the word we choose to describe these include her devotions to the world of the tiny tiny writing tiny objects tiny fish the color blue her Legos simple Foods or worship of YouTube for me though as intriguing and curious these Janelle passions I applaud and commend the Loyalty she afforded to her true self Janelle found in life those things that gave her meaning and purpose and stayed true to who she was Janelle made no bones about who she was and made no effort to conceal her truths fully expressing her creativity and joy in those activities she engaged I recall talking to Janelle and joking to her almost teasing her about something that from my outside perspective seemed obsessive I don't remember exactly what it was that she was doing or what it was she was talking about but I remember watching the expression of joy that well-known Janelle's smile and hearing the sense of Pride and confidence as she said yes I like that and in that moment I recall feeling gifted the gift of seen someone modeling no judgment toward themselves the gift of seeing pride in one's self-awareness the gift of seeing an individual remaining steadfast in their conviction of who they are and just as the effectiveness and power of written words cannot be measured by size of font neither can the spoken word be assessed by volume nor number of words yes I like that spoken softly simply with a joyous smile and yet with great conviction I got it Janelle was not one to fill the space with voice she filled the space with who she was and of course the voice of others through music she left little footprint but great influence and speaking of Janelle and the lives that she touched I would be completely remiss if I did not praise Janelle's quick wit and sense of humor how she moved us all to into laughter through her unique view of life's inconsistencies imperfections and daily demands I always look forward to Janelle's weekend reports I will miss them take for example the following email to her team Mike briam has asked if we can come up with a generic name for the loger head exhibit he would like to have a name that doesn't need to be changed in the PLC every time we change the theme or the occupant a location based name might be best let's get the creative juices flowing please here are a couple suggestions from me where the exhibit has no name the edge of O I can tell this is resonating what do you have Janelle asks or perhaps her ongoing sister-like justful Jing with her dear friend Christy Angelo at the end of one of her reports and probably most exciting is that the next 3 weeks Chris will be away on vacation emphasis on away exciting for her exciting for us exciting all around or the days when there was nothing to report it was quiet the sun came out and there's really not much to report the fish are swimming it's national dog day and this is companied with a photo of dogs with little American flags in their calls or Saturday was a quiet day actually both days were quiet remember don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things and I love this one this flashlight was left on my desk many weeks ago and I don't know why did anybody order this and or know where it's meant to be looks like it would be useful if you have to park any airplanes and then there was the time that I was presented with a gift for taking action toward a cleanliness issue in our office restrooms a cake that Janelle made in the image likeness and shape of a toilet complete with a Target in the bowl and little yellow sprinkles on the seat johnell we love you peacey with [Music] you and now I am to introduce somebody I don't know Mary from the suent club are you out there Mary oh thank you this is fun I get to know her in a way that I never knew her before and this is quite an awesome group yay um I'm from the montree Bay Area Cactus and succulent Society Janelle joined our club just about the time where we we had we got Co and so we were struggling to try to stay together and you know we almost died and Janelle was a part of our Zoom meetings and helped us to continue and to uh rebuild and she was our librarian she became our librarian um so this article was put in the last newsletter for um our club our head librarian Janelle passed away last month after a long illness Janelle was an inspiration and a trooper she saw her last at our we saw her last at our August membership meeting it was August 20th uh at the home of one of our members and she seemed to enjoy being with us and sharing it was clear that she was very much sicker than earlier but she was there the club shut down at the beginning of the pandemic Janelle was one of the members who helped get it started again we learned that our previous line had moved away and needed a replacement and Janelle just jumped right in with another member um to take over the library she created a database and uh was very faithful and really wanted to know what what the books were all about in regard to succulents she really loved succulents um the thing I wanted to tell you is that we have sales uh twice a year and even when she was quite sick after her surgery the first one um she would be there she would be at the cash register and I me I could tell she was in pain oh no no I'll stay I'll be here and so she was faithful she supported uh and she loved us and we loved her and we miss her we have not been able to replace her yet as a librarian thank you [Music] [Applause] hi everybody I'm Michelle Janelle's sister and um thank you for all the kind words Paula John Mary um and Julie thank you it's kind of cool you you took a lot of the things that I did not include in my speech here um and as I was kind of trying to figure out how I'm going to convey a message to tonight um I the thing that popped in my mind was the secret life of JV because you know she was very private but um anyway I am going to stick to my words here and uh try to keep it simple um so I am Janelle's older sister and only sibling and at this moment we all share a powerful connection being a family friend in the life of my sister Jan know I'm certain that we all could have never ever imagined that this space here would be shared for a moment such as this to honor and to process to grieve to laugh to connect for Janelle you were all my sister's extended family what a gr beautiful group you all are thank you for being a part of my sister's life there have been many times over the years I've been here with her as a visitor and I can hear her right now loud and clear telling me not to embarrass her I can even feel her brushing me hitting me um to keep quiet um so I'll do my best not to embarrass her I've always been a proud um I've always been proud of my sister but tonight my family and I have never been prouder of Janelle thank you all for loving my sister a proud sister story which I'm sure you all will appreciate my sister had shared with me that she had a goal of completing 500 log dives by her 50th birthday and she exceeded her Dives um and her goal by a few months ahead of that date Janelle had exactly 600 Dives logged uh during her career life and is very precise just like her style though my sister's life was short she truly lived a wonderful life as you all know she was fiercely passionate for the things she loved she showed us her precise and unique ways for doing things her nature was subtle yet she she was impactful she left us with her Legacy I would like to continue to honor her spirit her Legacy through a scholarship fund I am establishing a scholarship award for ambitious young students who wish to pursue their dreams of becoming a Marine mammologist or a marine biologist I've created a Blog style website which is currently a work in progress I'll be adding blog posts sharing some behind theen sc's highlights and memories of her life and it will be a resource to keep her light and Legacy alive with her physical absence a piece of me has left with her but she has left in me with the gift of her life and her Legacy that will live live on through me and through every one of you I hope that you will take some some of this love from today and let the memory and life of my sister Janelle be Beauty and strength in your days and give you light when you think of her you all know how extraordinary brilliant witty and just how awesome my sister was I'd like to invite you just right now to take a moment maybe even close your eyes and remember one special gift that my sister gave you the gift that she gave you place it in your heart and lock it in and let that be a treasure and a memory that gives you courage and energy when you need a little boost of what would Janelle say or what would Janelle do my sister wrote a note to some of you a few weeks ago before she left us originally for those of you who worked on the thousand plus cranes and I feel it transfers appropriately to this moment as well so with a few edits these are words from my sister to all of you wonderful friends I can't find the words to express how much the origami cranes mean to me I've been overwhelmed and humbled by all of the love and support I've been receiving during my fight that was magnified when I saw the Thousand cranes hanging by the desk what an effing awesome amazing incredible gift I was blown away and quickly brought to tears years ago I used to make origami animals and turn them into mobiles I'm a I'm a fan of origami my favorite color is blue so the color theme is perfect and the scattered youw album cranes is just wow I saw pictures of a lot of you folding and again I was humbled and brought to tears thank you doesn't feel like enough but thank you thank you thank you I really feel blessed to be a part of this MBA family so here's a short tribute in honor of my sister and your friend Janelle Verdugo curator of fish and invertebrates Montery Bay Aquarium this was her 25th year anniversary retired 82723 we're going to play that thank you and with love and appreciation