LLC SINCE 2006
12 DELIGHTFULLY DIFFERENT PLACES TO STAY IN ARIZONA 7
Age Is Just a Number
Crossfit Legends Are Senior Superstars story and photos by Kim Stone
LONG TERM INTEREST 8
If you’ve heard of Crossfit, you most likely associate it with a bunch of fitness-crazed twentyand thirty-somethings who drag themselves out of bed every morning to do a flurry of burpees, pull ups, and kettlebell swings. So you may be shocked to discover there’s an equally fanatical group of local Crossfit practitioners who are 50 years older than these young whippersnappers. They’re called the Legends and they range in age from a frisky 71 to an ever-so-mature 87. Make no mistake. None of these Legends
are ready to live out their days in a rocking chair with a hand-knit afghan spread across their knees. No, these elder athletes would rather work their tails off three times a week in the Crossfit Globe-Cobre Valley gym on Pine Street in Globe. Most of them never miss a day. I recently watched an entire workout and I’d pit any one of these septuagenarians and octogenarians against most run-of-the-mill mid-lifers pushing 50. On the day I was there, the day’s workout was written on a large whiteboard mounted on the wall: 3 sets each of 28 jumping jacks, 28
squats, and—wait for it—3 sets of 3 handstands. Picture this: Here were 12 older adults born during the Truman administration (or earlier!) fully inverted with their straight legs braced against the gym walls. Amazing. One of these elder athletes is Sandy Brewer, who is about to turn 84. Before she started Crossfit three and a half years ago, she had balance and mobility issues and had been victim to a few falls. “I couldn’t bend down, and if I got down, I couldn’t get back up,” she told me.
LEGENDS, Continued on page 18
Local Art Advocate Appointed to State Arts Council by David Abbott
CITY OF GLOBE 6
HISTORIC GLOBE-MIAMI DOWNTOWN MAPS 10/11
Anyone who has walked in Historic Downtown Globe recently, hiked the Stairizona Trail or—more recently—taken in the “M” on the hill to the east of the Miami High School football field has seen the influence of Globe native Regina Ortega-Leonardi. The co-founder of I Art Globe and the new nonprofit Love Where You Live was recently appointed by Governor Katie Hobbs to be on the 15-member board of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, an agency of the State of Arizona. Ortega-Leonadi joins three additional new members, one from Bisbee and two from Flagstaff, to put a rural spin on a state agency that Hobbs has taken steps to expand with small-town influence. “I’m a small-town girl at heart, so I feel honored to be an Arts Commissioner for the state,” Ortega-Leonardi says. “I’m excited to bring a positive attitude and a special rural perspective. I believe this will help the Commission support the arts all across Arizona.”
With deep roots in Globe, she brings a wealth of experience in the wider world to try to bring beauty to overlooked corners of the community and create connections to the place she calls home. The youngest of seven children, OrtegaLeonardi was fortunate to have parents— owners of what was once Frank’s Jewel Box on Broad Street—who encouraged her to follow her passions and artistic bent. “I was always interested in art and it was something that my family and my parents nurtured,” Ortega-Leonardi says. “It always amazes me how my parents made it work, quite frankly. Having seven kids, they found our ‘one thing’ and helped feed it, which was nice.” After graduating from Globe High School—she says she “bleeds orange and black”—Ortega-Leonardi followed in her siblings’ footsteps and headed to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona, earning a degree in electronic journalism.
ARTS COUNCIL, continued on page 14
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