Dina Lyons Howell: Episode 7

In this episode of Coastal Characters, Dina Lyons Howell, Administrative Assistant at the Blue Economy Foundation, shares her journey to Cape Cod and the path that led her to her role at the Blue Economy Foundation. She reflects on her love of the ocean, her interest in marine biology, and how living and working on Cape Cod connects her passion for the sea with supporting the region’s blue economy.

Tune in for new episodes every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month. Learn more about the Cape Cod Blue Economy at bluecapecod.org

Hosted by Katy Acheson. Produced and edited by Nicolas Barcelo. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Hi friends, this is Katie Atchison, Executive Director of the Cape Cod Blue Economy Foundation, for another episode of Coastal Characters Podcast. And today we have Dina Lines Howell, who is here at the new, I guess not new-ish administrative assistant for the Blue Economy Foundation. Welcome, Dina. Hey Katie.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Well, it used to be mashed pea mud when I didn't have dairy issues.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

So now it's non-dairy mash pea. Non-dairy, yeah, exactly. Beer coffee ice cream.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

That one's actually like chocolate with fudge. And something chunks, yeah. Okay. All right. It's like a secret stash of like yumminess.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Excellent. Okay. See, we're getting the tough questions out of the way. Beautiful. Um, so you are very much in the blue economy. Can you take us down a little bit of your path on how you got to the Blue Economy Foundation? I know, but the people listening might not.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

It was a long and winding road. Um, so in fall of 2024, I was laid off from a position that I'd held for about almost 10 years as a UX designer/slash technical product manager for a national e-commerce uh equine brand. And so I spent some time trying to decide uh how I wanted to re-engage with the CAPE because I had had a design business here and um a family and a life, and it was had become completely separated my work and my life. So the first thing I did was apply to the Community Leadership Institute and got in. And then last winter I had the most amazing time in that program. And as I was um going through the weekly sessions and um sort of reopening my eyes to what was around me, I came across the Blue Economy website, and there just so happened to be a part-time role listed, and so that's how I found you.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

And it took us what six months to get our act together. That's right. Uh worth it. Yeah. Um, so as far as that piece that you mentioned about your work life and your personal life being separate, how does the blue economy fit into both for you? How do you fit that nature, work, are all of these pieces of yourself into like that?

SPEAKER_00 3:06

So I grew up on Long Island uh on a in a coastal community similar to where we are here. Um grew up sailing and fishing and swimming and doing all things related to the water. I thought I wanted to become a marine biologist, uh classic, but ended up going to art school where um I spent many years, uh not in school, but after school, um as a graphic designer um in very urban environments. Um then um through various paths, we ended up here on the Cape back in 2004. And that's when I had my own design business and was re-immersed in um a much more natural environment, my natural environment as a Pisces. So um just being around the water, raising my kids around the water, getting back into sailing um just came really naturally to me. Um so I think over time it just deepened my desire to somehow get involved and give back to the community. And for a while that uh meant volunteering with different local organizations that weren't necessarily involved in the blue economy, but just sort of interrelated. Um so one of the things I was doing during my in-between year, um, my rewirement year, was uh I had developed uh thanks to some friends um a vision board for last year, and um the main message in the board was to marry my avocation with my vocation.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

That's beautiful. And so how has this is not like a work review, but um how's that been going? And like how's it been going for you, but also what are some strategies that have worked that maybe are tips for other people that want to actually we're turning this into an advice podcast now, that wanna to to live by that? Because I think a lot of people do want that synergy.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

So I think one of the key things is not being afraid to really think about what you want and to also really think about the talents and skills you've developed over time if you're someone that's sort of middle to maybe later than middle career. Um, how do you translate those into um assets for the next role? And how do you sell yourself as someone who can be valuable in that position? Um, and also not being afraid um or turning away from opportunities that might not on their face value seem like that's going to be the place to be.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

So not not judging the book by the cover, exactly the job by the description kind of thing. I don't think any job has ever actually turned out the way it's described. Um so that's a really good piece of advice, and a really hard piece of advice is not being afraid of knowing what you want. Yeah. How do you do that? Now we're turning into a therapy podcast.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Well, I think it takes some courage. Um sometimes it takes either shutting out the inner voices or shutting out the outer voices. And also just not being afraid to try. I mean, we know that if it wasn't gonna work, there were gonna no be not not be any hard feelings, right? So just give it a try and see what happens.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

So and in case anyone listening can't tell, the the feelings are all very warm. Um so the the piggybacking on this a little bit and the not being afraid to try, uh, at the time of recording this, we just came off of Waterworks, which is our career exploration event. As far as your interactions at Waterworks and the day of, did you see any of that from other people or from students, that openness, that willingness to sort of, you know, what you're describing to me is kind of like in part we're talking about careers, but we're also talking about our like our self-interest. Did any of that come to the surface for you through the planning of Waterworks or through experiencing it? Like, are there examples out there of other people that you feel like maybe even not necessarily just at Waterworks, but in your interaction so far with the Blue Economy Foundation that are that are also living that path?

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Well, I can't think of a specific story. I think a common theme, especially here on the Cape, is that people are on a journey and they've stopped at many places to try things out and they've picked up and put things down. Sometimes they're on multiple overlapping journeys, and that's both a positive and a sobering fact that some people have a winter job and a summer job, or they have several jobs they're holding down all at once. I think what I saw that day is you have a mix of kids that have some passions and a lot of fear where they're just not sure what they want to do, and providing that reassurance that no matter what you do, it's okay. If you don't like it in a few years, like you can try something else.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

And it's the hardest thing for a kiddo to hear, though, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:43

It is, and it's hard for parents too. You know, you even you you want more for your kid than what you might have had, and you would love for them to sink their teeth into something and be passionate about it for the rest of their lives, but some people aren't wired that way. Like my dad is a lifelong scientist, and at 95, he is still working in the same type of work and is has thrived and has contributed and is beloved. I think I could not do the same thing for 95 years, and I guess you know, I'm not on that track. You know, I've really enjoyed dipping into different things and just having a great time at it.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

So I have an edge because I know some stuff about you that other people don't. Um, I want to hear a little bit about your graphic design experience that you've mentioned and how that's trickling into the work at the Blue Economy. How's that fitting in? Because I don't think administrative assistant, Blue Economy necessarily roles that people automatically think, like we didn't put graphic design in the job description, for example. But is that trickling in a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 9:52

It is. I think it's a really great mix of a little bit of design, a little bit of product and project management, and even a little bit of UX design with things like the website or conference experience. The key thing across all of it is leveraging the project planning skills and design thinking, like, okay, this is how something's been done. How do we leverage the things that are amazing and then work on improving it even more? Um, and then also certain skills, like I don't know, the other day I had to do a URL redirect for something. I never would have known what that was before I had my e-commerce job, you know, and so I'm grateful for that. Developing editorial calendars for social media, I really didn't know anything about that without the benefit of my last job. So there's a lot that you can carry from place to place. And I think that's another key message is if someone is sort of feeling stuck in their current role, take an inventory of the things you've learned and you know, pack that away because it'll be useful at another point in time.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Beautiful. Um, I don't want to ask you too many very specific questions, um, but I'm tempted to. Anyway, as far as this podcast goes, we've been talking to people about how their roles interact with the blue economy. You're working for the Blue Economy Foundation, you're meeting and interacting and emailing and talking to a lot of different people in the Blue Economy. I'm interested now, what four-ish months in, how you would describe the blue economy and who's in it. This is on the spot. I have not asked Tina to do this before. I'm just it just strikes me now that we're talking that um I could just ask you like a lot of pointed questions, but I think when we talk about this podcast as a whole, we've had a banker and uh musician and you know, admin and all kinds of different people. What do you categorize as the blue economy? What is the blue economy to you? Who are those people and what are those jobs? Just free free fall.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Like so I think first off, the blue economy touches way more than I ever thought possible. Like when I first applied for this job, I was imagining a lot of days at places like HUI and Center for Coastal Studies, which are amazing organizations, and I have had the benefit of interacting with those folks now, which I'm really excited about. Um but I kept thinking about things like research and um fishing boats and aquaculture. But now I've learned so much more like things like coastal resilience modeling and um water quality testing and how they all interact. And then even the um people wouldn't think of it as a direct relation, but our sort of medium blue um businesses or light blue businesses, so um hospitality and um, you know, even real estate, for example. So um I think it's it's the breadth of all the different sectors that weave together to make such a strong um culture here on the Cape.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Do you feel like the work that we've been doing on the the project? So we've been working on updating the Blue Economy project, the numbers of what makes the blue economy on Cape Cod, how many, you know, millions of dollars in revenue, how many jobs, et cetera? Does it line up for you, your experience and who you've interacted with and what we have in the data in the spreadsheets? Are they matching? Because I I'm I'm assuming by now that, and we can put a link in the show notes that there's some version of that out in the world. Right, right. So people are like, what are she talking about?

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Yeah. I mean, I think so. It's you know, I'm excited and also nervous to see what the latest numbers, the data looks like. Um I think what's been really interesting is to see the growth of some of our light blue uh sectors like the arts and culture, writing, um, performing, creating art. And I'm biased because I enjoy doing art as my you know passion projects. So I know a lot of artists that work with things like marine debris. Um and so I can see that, but to see the data showing, you know, this is increasing and why is it increasing is a super interesting question to me.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

So why? Why is it increasing? What do you think? We have not this we we don't know yet, but what's your what's your hypothesis?

SPEAKER_00 14:53

So if it if it's true that there is an increase in these creative pursuits that are related to the blue economy, I think part of it has to do with the um increased or heightened awareness of the importance of the health of our environment and coastal waters around us. Um I also think or suspect that there's some relation with the um uh increasing uh um population that has time to pursue those pursuits. So we have um a certain sector of the population that's retiring here, and of that population there's probably a large number of creative people that are you know pursuing that topic.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

So yeah, I think so. From my perspective, art has always been a really important part of the Cape's culture and tied to the blue economy. Um, one of the pieces on our website has some drawings from whale ship captains, and it's horrible, a horrible industry, but at the time it was the main industry on the Cape, and the drawings are beautiful. Um, and so there's an art in everything that we've been doing. Um and we, the the general we of people in this space for a really long time, and I think people think of P Town as a hub for art and culture, but it goes all the way down the coast and it goes through every different generation and all these different mediums. And I love that you mentioned the the um reclaimed ocean debris. Um there have been some really amazing pieces that have come out of that. Some people, some artists that you're friendly with that have created pieces like that. Um so maybe we're seeing like a resurgence of the arts tied to those things that you talked about, coastal resilience and environment, like these concerns. And I'm interested in your take on this, but I love the way our pop culture and our art highlight without us even knowing it, what's the most important.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Yeah, yeah. No, I totally agree. Totally agree.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Like we need to save the planet.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Um, how dare we? Um, so it is it is really interesting how how those things intersect. And it kind of it it parallels to what you're talking about about your work and your personal life interweaving and highlighting each other. Um, for the listeners, what is your artistic median? What is where do you go to when you do art for yourself?

SPEAKER_00 17:39

So my primary um area of focus is uh watercolors and more in a journal style, so I'm not a huge like canvas finished painting kind of person. I have a lot of different size notebooks and scraps of paper, um, and I just enjoy getting outside and you know, drawing or painting what I see. Sometimes I like telling stories about what I'm seeing. So um last summer we were on vacation on a schooner in Maine, and I took a journal and some travel watercolors, and I tried to document our travels during that week, similar to the style of the sea captains, just trying to draw a little bit about whatever everything we were seeing.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

So field notes.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Field notes, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Yeah, really, really fun, really fun. Um, so of the the blue economy art that you like, other than your own, you're allowed to like your own. Um, who are some of those artists that you're following? Who are some of the artists that you think local or regional are worth shouting out, worth following?

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Oh, sure. So um Sarah Thornington of Ebb the Tide, uh, she is just a phenomenal artist and a friend. Um she um devotes a lot of time helping the um beach brigade up at the Center for Coastal Studies, doing a lot of beach cleanups and um collecting and documenting uh the debris that they find. But then she takes pieces and creates all kinds of amazing sculptures. Um in the summer months you can find her seagull at the um visitor center on Route 6. And then she recently completed a huge mural at I think it's Buttonwood Park Zoo. Um, but she's just incredible.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Yeah, she's um I think if anyone saw her whales, they would recognize them. Yep. I don't even know how to describe them, but they're they're alive on the like on the wall. There's these like 3D sculpture, like you want to touch them, they're beautiful. Yeah. Um yeah, Kleena the gull. Yes. Yeah, at the visitor center is made up of lots of different pieces that you wouldn't expect um to be turned into a gull. Exactly. Really kind of extraordinary. And I had the um extraordinary pleasure of seeing the space in which Kleena was created, and it is a mess. Yeah, yeah. It's incredible. There's saws and buckets and paint and plastic shielding, and just it was it imagine like Frankenstein's laboratory, but plastic. Yeah, yeah. It's really incredible. So, like the amount of work she puts into these pieces is extraordinary. Absolutely, absolutely incredible.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

And then um another artist I just love, um, she doesn't work in marine debris, but she is out in nature. Um her, she it's Mary Richmond, but her um online presence is Cape God Art in Nature, and she's um a writer and fabulous, fabulous artist who's constantly documenting what she sees and the changes she's seen in nature. Um so just following her and reading her columns, um you can find her at the Enterprise and um the Chatham um The Chronicle.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Chronicle. Sorry. Yep, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

There's only so many books in the Cape Cod Chronicle. Um but just uh her observations about just the daily things you might find, but also just how things have changed over time. It's really powerful. Um beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

And there are so many artists across Cape Cod and beyond that are doing really incredible work. Um it's almost impossible to name them all. Yeah. I will name drop my friend Mike Palmer from uh Wakoyat Bay Fish Company. Oh, cool. Um, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

He was me for all.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Yeah. Um if anyone's ever had a Zoom call with me, it's the fish in the background. There we go. Um hyper realistic, very different, but in the same way he uses his illustrations. He does his beautiful colored pencil. Drawings, um, they're as true to life as they could be. And the point of it is every print or picture comes with some information about that species. So it's a way of bringing people under the surface and seeing it. So there's so many different like all three of those artists do things very differently, right? And still bringing people closer and closer to nature. Exactly. And like through a really accessible means. Really beautiful. You do that, you bring people closer to nature through your activities, right? Your experiences. Um, is there anyone that brings you closer to nature, like that pulls you back down to earth, that brings you, like do you have like a guide or someone that has like like a scout troop leader that like has brought you back down to brought you back to nature?

SPEAKER_00 22:51

Well, I think you know, Mary's definitely uh one of those people. Um, but it you know, in general, my friends and family, like we enjoy spending a lot of time outside. So uh just getting away from screens. So it's it's important, especially in this day and age.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

So just not today when it's 12 degrees outside.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

No, that's really rough.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

I hope that by the time this comes out, we're all complaining about it being wet but warm. Exactly. Yes. Um, like to timestamp these episodes by degrees of the outside ambient temperature being wildly, wildly cold. Um, so one of the other hard-hitting questions, as we kind of come to like a middle segment here, is um we talked about ice cream. What is your go-to pizza topping order?

SPEAKER_00 23:39

Oh, that's a tough one. Um scallop and bacon.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

Ooh, okay. All right. So we're doing surf and turf kind of a version. We're doing okay, scallop and bacon. A little salty, a little sweet, a little fishy, a little mommy and everything on the plate. All right. I love the I'm gonna make like a some kind of infographic of everyone's pizza topic. There you go. Like create a menu or something. It's really extraordinary. Um as far as your relationship to Cape Cod, you grew up on the coast, you came to the Cape. Where do you feel the most at home between all the places you've lived, because you spent time in New York, you've been all where do you feel like home is for you? Where are your roots? I would say the Cape. Um I didn't do that on purpose, listener. I wasn't planting that seed. I didn't actually know the answer.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

No, I would say the Cape, and aside from the fact that I've just been here for a long time, we also spent a lot of time traveling up here on my family's very small 22-foot sailboat when I was a kid. So picture, you know, you hear the stories of people crammed into a car traveling across America as their well back then that was like the way people went on vacation. So we were the four of us crammed in this little tiny sailboat um for three weeks at a time, traveling from Long Island to Block Island to Cutty Hunk to the Vineyard to parts of the Cape. And so I think it's just been in my bones ever since I was a kid.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

So what what is it about the Cape that draws you? Can you articulate it?

SPEAKER_00 25:16

There's this expansive aspect to it if you can see past the no-left-turn traffic on Route 28 in the summer. But um, there's if you let yourself be out in nature and away from um all the busyness and just listen and breathe and walk and sit and nap. Um, there's some amazing conservation areas, there's some amazing beaches. Um especially when you get um up to the outer cape and up to Wellfleet, like Great Island is one of my favorite places to hike because you can get out, you know, uh onto the main part of it within a 20-minute walk, and then there's usually no one there, which is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Yeah, but it is it is expansive for how small it is. Yeah, which is really wild. Yeah, and then you get the expanse of the ocean right there too. Beautiful. Um so uh we've we've really just talked a lot about the Dina personal passion and the Dina professional and how those things come together. What is for you something that you're looking forward to either in this role or in the future for you as far as how these sort of pieces of you come together? Is there anything that you have hoped to have happen or something that you are like excited that's going to happen, something that brings all of the parts of you together?

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Well, I'm I've been so excited to meet all these incredible people, and everyone has been so nice and welcoming and eager to teach whatever I'm interested in learning. So I'm just really excited to keep diving into that.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

It's a very selfless answer.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

Well, I just it's kind of helping me fulfill those little girl like marine biology degrees without having to go through the math and the biology classes. Um, but I think if there's a point where I can retain enough information to be able to share it with other people and not be like, oh, I need to look at my notes because I forgot the name of that person or the like I remember the thing we talked about, you know, it's um just the idea that I can somehow help make connections and help, you know, people help each other. That that's the big thing.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

I don't know how long it takes, but at some point your news algorithms will be all blue economy.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Oh, they're pretty much all there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Um I get like my breaking news alerts are about manatees and flamingos on Cape Cotton now.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Yeah, no, I've been getting well, mine's a mix of um blue economy and mountain and hiking related things with the occasional like warm sweater and warm snow boots because we're in that season now.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

So it's happening to you already. So it takes about three, four months for that to happen. So there we go.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Yeah, and that's how I found that cool conference that we're gonna go to.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Yeah, we're going up to Maine. A little work field trip is gonna be good. We'll report on that. Um, as far as other messages, um, so when this comes out, we'll be gearing up for our big blue conference. We're getting into some planning for that. Um I don't know exactly who we're gonna have speak there, but are there any elements of that that you're feeling warmed up and excited about? Are there any pieces that are I'm planting a little bit this time?

SPEAKER_00 28:53

So I'm really excited about something new that we're going to try, which is we've um collaborating with uh the artist Jackie Reeves to uh have her facilitate an interactive piece for the two-day conference where um uh she'll help engage with the um students and the um attendees to just create an amazing piece of work. Um so I can't wait to see how that um begins and unfolds, and just really looking forward to collaborating with her and having her take the lead on this.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

So I'm super excited.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

Um when I did my first walk around at Falmouth High School where we're having the event, um, the folks there showed me the murals that they did with Jackie for their land acknowledgement. Um and there were pictures then of the students actually doing some of the painting, doing some of the informing of what the piece would look like from start to finish, from concept all the way through to finish. Um and that inspired wanting to do something. And I think like one of the very first things when you started, I was like, here, an artist, please please connect with her so make this happen. Like here, have this. Um, because I knew it was gonna bridge like an easy way to like dip your toe into this event planning side of the work with something that I knew you were all be passionate about. So that's I'm super excited to see that all come together for us. Um, and to to see what Jackie comes up with. No pressure, Jackie. Um so we've got a lot going on, the work's going really, really well. Like I said, it's not a work review. Um, we're just doing a podcast, everybody. Um, but I think I want to promote and make sure that everyone knows that the work that we're doing is Blue Economy. We're also working with Climate Change Collaborative, doing some admin stuff. You're also helping with Cape Tide. Um, and so for sake of how people should interact with you and reach out to you, um, this is my plea to everyone to just be patient with Dina because she's also handling all of my stuff. Um, it's it's a wild inbox situation uh for our emails. Um, but I am so appreciative to have someone to tag team on all of this stuff and also like just be able to stomp down the stairs of the office and not actually have to say anything because Dina's already seen the same email and just be like, oh my gosh, what are we doing? Or just been in the same meeting and just be like freaking out, like what is happening? What are we doing? We don't freak out that often. No. Um, but it's a really it's so nice to have someone else like side by side working through all of this stuff, working in the spaces with the people on the projects that I also wanted to bring be a marine biologist, but was terrible at biology class. So we're we're both in this, like wading through all of this fun, cool, amazing stuff in a way that takes a lot of effort and a lot of work to bring together to bring to everybody. So I want to bring a little bit of the stuff that we've learned or stuff that we've picked up and and bring this together for you by throwing out a couple of questions related to the marine biologist you never became. So fantasy. Um really easy first one though, like what is your today favorite marine species?

SPEAKER_00 32:26

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

Just for today, it can change tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

That's really tough. I have to say jellyfish.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Jellyfish. It's because you've got a stack of jellyfish tattoos on the bottom. That's true.

unknown 32:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Amazing, amazing. Um, if you had become a marine biologist, hypothetically, fantasy, another like a branched universe, Dina over there that's like become one. Was there ever a particular location or species or work that you were interested in?

SPEAKER_00 32:57

I don't think it was that far developed. No. It was just like get me on in the water, near the water. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

You wanted to stay on the boat forever.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Yeah. Yeah. But I just I was actually fascinated by the life along the shoreline. So just looking at all the little tiny tiny creatures.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

So little tide pools.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Tide pools. Big thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Yeah. Yeah. All right. What kind of as a kiddo, when you were playing in low tide in those tide pools, what were some of your favorite little friends in there?

SPEAKER_00 33:28

Oh, the hermit crabs. And then just finding baby things, like finding the baby flounder and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

Little amazing. So cute. Um, and then I'm inspired by a magazine that you just shared with me today. If someone has 10 minutes and wants to engage with the blue economy in some way or engage with that coastal space somehow, what's something that someone could do in 10 minutes?

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Join one of their local, you know, clean water coalitions. Um stop using single-use plastics. Um, and a new one that I didn't really think about is picking up your dog poop and disposing of it at your transfer station and not leaving it on the pathways or letting your dog poop in the woods. And the reason why is the um things that our dogs are eating or ingesting, whether it's just regular old food or any medications, all of that is processed and it just by even though it's biodegradable, it goes into our groundwater. And so that is huge. It never even occurred to me.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

Care are gonna love that. Care for Cape Lines are gonna love that final comment. Yeah, um, taking care, being a steward of the space we're in, all things you mentioned is really, really great. Um, and there are a ton of volunteer opportunities. Um, there are a ton of groups, and as we're going through and collecting all this information, we're trying to do our best to share it on our website. Um, anyone listening can help us by if you have an event or an internship or a job opportunity. If you go to bluecapecod.org, you can enter that information by yourself. You don't need a login, you don't need anyone else's email, you can just put in the information, it'll come to Dina and I will approve it, or if we have questions, we'll reach out to you. Um, but help us out. This is my little my little plea, my little call to action. Um, help Dina out.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Yeah, we've actually got a few job postings from last week's waterworks that I just approved today. So amazing.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

So um there's a resource there for people to find stuff, but there's also a way for people to share information um and opportunities. So if there's a beach cleanup happening or any kind of gathering, herring run count, any of that kind of stuff can go up under the events or the volunteer opportunities. So share with us, bluecape cod.org. Any parting words, Dina, that you would like to share with your listeners?

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Well, I just wanted to thank you for bringing me on board and thank the rest of the chamber staff. It's been an amazing team to join, and I just couldn't be happier.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

Yay.