Bob and Lynn O’Dell are the closest thing to the ideal volunteers as you are likely to find. The O’Dells, who are in their 60s, do almost everything for the Edgewater-based Arundel Rivers Federation. And they do it with enthusiasm and energy, like someone half their ages.
“They never say no to any task,” Arundel Rivers Federation Executive Denise Swol says. “I can call them and say, ‘We need a volunteer to go do x,’ and one of them will show up within an hour. They are the most reliable, dependable, go-to volunteers of any nonprofit organization I have worked at in my 16-year-career.” Swol even has trouble keeping track of all the different things the Annapolis residents do.
Bob repaired a gazebo, built a platform for an osprey nest, and a kayak rack, fixed a motor on a boat, while also doing a financial analysis of a stream restoration grants. Lynn has worked on a couple of rather tedious office projects that have taken months to complete.
“It’s more like, what they haven’t done for us,” Arundel Rivers Volunteer and Outreach Program Coordinator Nancy Merrill Sullivan says. “Sometimes, it’s all these little tasks that break the camel’s back and they just step in and help us with those moments where that last little effort is critical.”
What initially spurred the O’Dells to join the organization was their interest in helping replenish the oyster population on the Bay and its tributaries. They started by growing oysters off the dock of their Hillsmere home on the South River’s Duvall Creek. As part of the process, the O’Dells go out once a week and shake the six cages, each of which contains about 100 old oyster shells with baby oysters (spat) attached to them. The shaking wipes all the sediments off them and its takes nine months for the oysters to reach full size.
“Let’s face it,” says Bob, who is secretary of the organization’s board. “The water is filthy. We were interested in growing oysters because we knew oysters were a keystone species. They filter the water.”
There’s a second part of O’Dells task with the oysters they raise on their pier. The O’Dells transfer the oysters to the Arundel River’s reef and on Glebe Bay. “I think everybody wishes for clean rivers that you can swim and be comfortable in,” Bob says. “I think we should aspire to helping out and we feel we are doing something about it. We feel we are making a difference.”
The O’Dells, who also work at Arundel River’s social events, moved to Annapolis in 2009 from Montgomery County, where, for 37 years, they had a business that built and remodeled custom homes. They owned a boat and spent their free time on the Chesapeake Bay for decades.
“Even though I didn’t live on the water, I loved the bay,” says Bob, noting the couple joined Arundel Rivers in 2012. “I loved to come over here and fish and crab and go boating and swim off the boat.”
All the handyman expertise he accumulated over nearly four decades as a home builder comes in handy at the foundation. “I can build and repair the monitoring stations that we put in the creeks to measure the water pollution,” Bob says. “They look like little out-houses on stilts with electronic equipment inside.” Bob doesn’t even mind doing the dirty jobs. “I have a pickup, so you have to be willing to go to the dump,” he says. “I do whatever I can to help out.”
Arundel Rivers’ leadership appreciates Lynn’s accounting and administrative background from the family business. Lynn took on the task of scanning about 1,000 legal release forms for the organization’s volunteers to participate in events. The bigger job was condensing 14 boxes into a few by keeping important documents and throwing out those no longer needed. Lynn says, “That was a super project as far the time that was involved.” Merrill adds, “She got it done so we didn’t have to pay for storage.”
While the O’Dells involvement is mission driven, the work comes with social benefits. That’s very important to Bob and Lynn. “It’s a small group and everybody is very tight,” Lynn explains. “I enjoy being in there. They are very enthusiastic and we share their passion for cleaning up the river and, ultimately, the bay.”
