One evening in 1970, a female sea turtle pulled itself up the beach on Topsail Island and buried its eggs beside Jean Beasley’s fence.

About 40 years later, Beasley recalled the emotion and sense of wonder the scene invoked as she watched the turtle labor in the sand.

“If you see what that female goes through — the struggle to drag herself out of the water and up the beach. Of course, she leaves her eggs to incubate in the sand, but she does the best she can for them before she goes. She builds them a beautiful nest and makes it as safe as possible and disguises it the best way she knows how before she has to leave it and return to the water,” Beasley said.

“It was really quite a moving moment.”

That single event marked the beginning of a journey that would eventually lead Beasley, a retired school teacher and administrator, to dedicate her life to the protection and preservation of the sea turtles of Topsail Beach.

Now celebrating its 10-year anniversary, the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center has saved scores of sick and injured sea turtles from boat propeller injuries, flipper fractures, infections, disease, hook entanglements and other life-threatening conditions.

“I sort of compare us to the nurses who are on the floor, working directly with the patients, and who report back to the doctors what is going on,” said Beasley.

In this case, the doctors hail from the College of Veterinary Medicine, with whom Beasley has developed a close partnership that actually pre-dates the center’s founding. The CVM acts as the hospital’s primary veterinary resource for major operations and procedures that require special expertise and equipment.

“The first turtle we ever rehabbed, we took up to State. When they got done with the treatment, I, in my innocence, said ‘when can we come back to see the turtle?’ and they said, ‘What do you mean? We don’t have any place to keep it. It has to go home with you.’ And that was actually the beginning of the sea turtle hospital,” Beasley said.

“I wasn’t planning on building a hospital, but I ended up with a turtle that didn’t have any place to go, and that was it.”

Soon, other turtles followed. At first, Beasley and a group of volunteers kept them in makeshift backyard enclosures until cold weather arrived and forced Beasley to transport the turtles to Florida for the winter.

“Very quickly, it became apparent that we were going to need a real facility. We obviously couldn’t keep making that trip,” Beasley said.

Completed in 1997, the facility was named after Beasley’s daughter, Karen, who died of leukemia at the age of 29. She was the founder of the Topsail Beach Project, which monitors and protects nesting turtles and their hatchlings during the nesting season.

Today, the facility that bears her name not only continues, but expands upon her work by engaging in conservation, rehabilitation and public education.

As executive director of the center, Beasley said she oversees an all-volunteer staff composed of citizens who share a deep love and concern for sea turtles — animals who live under increasing threat from fishing nets, boat propellers, long-line fishing and beach development.

“We have CEOs of major groups, we have registered nurses, retired surgeons, retired dentists — I mean, you name it,” Beasley said. “We even had someone come on board very recently who is a retired prison warden.”

In addition, the center has become a teaching facility for fourth-year veterinary medicine students, complete with a house large enough for eight interns.

“They have the opportunity to interact with the turtles and with the volunteers at the turtle hospital,” Beasley said. “Every year they have a project to see through to the end. The group this year got every kind of injury and illness you could possibly imagine admitted during their two-week period, and got a lot of great experience.”

Craig Harms, assistant professor of clinical science, said he stays with students during their time at the Topsail Island facility. For the past seven years, Harms has worked closely with Beasley, consulting on and treating a wide variety of traumatic injuries.

“We’ve had a fair number of head trauma cases recently. There’ve been a couple cases where the brain was exposed to sea water, and they still managed to pull through, get rehabilitated and eventually released,” Harms said.

The sea turtle center Web site features before-and-after images of a turtle whom volunteers named “Snow,” whose skull was split open by a boat propeller.

“It’s pretty darn striking,” Harms said. “It’s something you wouldn’t think an animal could survive. … It’s probably going to be in rehab for another year, but it’s doing pretty well right now.”

Amanda Ardente, a third-year student at the CVM teaching hospital who volunteered at the sea turtle center on several occasions, said volunteer veterinary students try to help out at the center as much as possible.

“Dr. Harms occasionally gets students to help Jean out with some of the sea turtle projects,” Ardente said. “She manages about 15 sea turtles at a time down there, in that little facility, and they do what they can with what they have. She has a heart of gold, and wants the best for those turtles.”

That dedication recently led Animal Planet to name Beasley “Hero of The Year.” Beasley received a trip to Hawaii and $10,000, which she said she plans on using to help build a larger facility.

“It’s a wonderful thing to happen, but, of course, I don’t do it in a vacuum. It takes a lot of people to get the work done that we do. It’s our privilege to do it,” Beasley said.

Best of all, according to Beasley, the award directs publicity toward the plight of sea turtles at a time when active public involvement is critical for the continued survival of not only creatures like the sea turtle, but of all living things.

“This is a challenge for everybody. We can’t stand by and let there continue to be the degradation of our planet, which is not only home to all our animals, but our home as well,” Beasley said.

“Everybody needs to do something. Step up to the plate. Do what it takes to make it a better place for us all.”