Shelby L. Redondo/Photo by Jim O’Donnell
BY BERNADETTE LAURITZEN
Shelby Redondo was was 34 years old when she arrived in Los Alamos in 1983, but even then, she knew she had a strong need to be part of a community. This new home was, “My community, my children’s community,” and the need to make positive change began in earnest.
Today, we start a little further back. She graduated from Keyser High School, West Virginia, in 1967, then attended a branch of West Virginia University, then called Potomac State College. She studied Agronomy (field crops and soils) and after a camping trip to Utah was inspired to transfer to Utah State University. There she not only received her bachelor’s degree but met Tony Redondo, the man she would marry. She followed that by obtaining a master’s degree in education at California State University.
While she and Tony considered eloping, her mother was adamantly against it. They married in
June 1971 in Keyser. Her brother even went AWOL from Vietnam for a few days to give the
bride away. He then returned to the Da Nang Air Force Base, an airplane mechanic and volunteer Red Beret, rescuing wounded soldiers.
The Redondo family arrived one week before Los Alamos Nation Laboratory celebrated its 40th anniversary. When the week at the Los Alamos Inn ended, they were unable to stay longer with the huge event descending upon the town. They decided to camp with their two boys and their dog Rontu at Bandelier. It sounds idyllic until the rain arrived, too. Ross Lemmons, Tony’s Group Leader, was tipped off by a fellow employee and headed to Bandelier to invite them to stay in his home.
Shelby knew one thing when they arrived in Los Alamos that she still holds dear today.
“I always felt that it was important to invest in one’s community,” she said.
She did just that many times over and always with a goal to assist others. Her handprints are all over programs like: Los Alamos Public Schools, Los Alamos County Aquatic Center Advisory Subcommittee, poll working, voter registration, Los Alamos Retired and Senior Organization, and the Summit Garden Club.
She really found her niche when she retired and began to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity (H4H). Building Kindness, under the umbrella for H4H, was created from an endowment by a couple at the Lutheran Church. Their goal was simple, provide home repairs for low-income people. She volunteered with the group for three years. At that time, they bloomed into their own non-profit, renamed Mesa-to-Mesa, and she was a member of the board of directors.
Shelby’s stories of that time are heartwarming, particularly when she saw that the projects provided the most gratifying experiences for her.
“I’ll never forget the lady with lupus who spent an entire year without hot water,” Shelby said. “We installed a hot water tank in her mobile home; as a result, her first reaction was to take a bubble bath.”
Another project started with a woman that needed help in reducing her monthly heating bill of $500. After patching a hole in the wall and various leaks, they soon found something bigger. This grandmother had patched numerous holes in her kitchen floor. The bigger story was that there was no floor, just the bare ground. The Mesa-to-Mesa team made her a new kitchen floor; she reacted by dancing on it.
The lessons taught her that we could improve people’s lives by reusing materials and furniture that others were planning to discard. The donation of old cabinets prevented hundreds of cockroaches from entering the home. They added steps which allowed a home to have more than one entry and provided all homes with smoke detectors.
Another volunteer opportunity that had an impact on her life dealt with the community’s need for a leisure pool. She was passionate about improving the opportunities for children to learn to swim and providing a fun recreational and safe facility for them. There were far too many children in our town that were not learning how to swim. Her goal was to convince the County Council, and it started with a Letter to the Editor of Los Alamos Monitor. One of her school bosses may not have liked that, but it made an impact. It may have taken 30 years to accomplish the goal, but how did it feel to see it come to fruition? Her eyes started to fill with tears.
“I cried, I cried, that was the first time I got to see it. They opened it to county employees and their families. I watched this child, this toddler and I started to cry. One of the lifeguards went by and I said, ‘That’s a future lifeguard right there, this toddler.'” She said.
The devoted soccer loving family includes two sons born in Mérida, Venezuela. Tomás was born in 1977 and Michael in 1980. They were joined in Los Alamos in 1985 by a sister, Rebecca. The children began their volunteerism with free snow shoveling. While she wasn’t always certain a few dollars didn’t trade hands, Shelby instilled in them the importance of giving back to one’s community.
Shelby and Tony are lucky to have all three of their Hilltoppers still in Los Alamos. Tomás earned two bachelor’s degrees in University Studies and Photojournalism from Colorado State University. Michael graduated from the University of New Mexico with bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and Biology. Michael served time in the Peace Corps and returned to UNM for a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning with a concentration in Natural Resources. He worked as a firefighter after the Cerro Grande fire, served as the Los Alamos County Probate Judge and is currently the County Clerk. Rebecca earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts through the University of New Mexico and an associate’s degree in Machining by Central New Mexico College. She currently works at Mesa Public Library.