2018 forecast: Big changes in the political and desert landscape
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
If you thought 2017 brought a lot of changes to Ahwatukee, only one thing can be said about the new year: You ain’t seen anything yet.
And if you are still recovering from the 2016 blitz of candidates’ pitches and the overall frenzy of politics, strap on your seat belts because 2018 in some respects will offer Ahwatukee a dizzying area of choices at the ballot box – likely in three separate elections.
Here is a look at some of the major changes awaiting Ahwatukee as residents hang up new calendars.
Races galore
By far, politics will be one of two dominating themes for Ahwatukee in 2018 – the other, of course, being the South Mountain Freeway.
From Phoenix City Hall to the State Capitol to Congress, Ahwatukee voters will be deciding a host of races.
For starters, look for a special election, likely this spring, as candidates jockey to replace Mayor Greg Stanton, who is eyeing the congressional seat being vacated by Kyrsten Sinema, whose district includes Ahwatukee.
One of the rumored candidates is an Ahwatukee resident: Moses Sanchez, a former Tempe Union High School District govern-
This Ahwatukee newcomer’s part-time gig
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
Some people might call Ahwatukee newcomer Barbara Jaeger a purr-fect addition to the community.
As she settles into her new home in the new year, Jaegar brings with her an impressive resume in the field of 911 operations, where she has held various positions for 40 years –more than half as a state employee. She also is a past president and eight-year board director of the 6,000-member National Emergency Number Association.
But it’s her part-time job – she calls it a hobby – that may be especially appealing to pet owners in Ahwatukee.
Well, at least close to half of them.
Jaegar judges cats.
For 14 years, the New York native and longtime Arizona resident has been an allbreed judge for the 112-year-old Cat Fanciers Association, an international network of cat owners whose animals are not just trea-
ing board member. Sanchez has declined to say whether he’s in the race, which likely will also involve two incumbent City Council members.
Come August, primary elections will arrive, though it is unclear whether Legislative District 18, which encompasses Ahwatukee, will have a dog in that hunt.
State Rep. Jill Norgaard is unlikely to face a primary challenge within her Republican ranks. Ditto on the D-side for Sen. Sean Bowie of Ahwatukee and Rep. Mitzi Epstein of Tempe, who are both hoping to get the nod in November for second terms.
Whether Democrats and Republicans
(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Photographer)
Last month Barbera Jaeger judged a Phoenix Feline Fanciers’ cat show in Mesa and one of her duties involved determining the cat that was best dressed for the holidays. This feline came in a “Nutcracker” tutu.
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Suzanne Whitaker, who has painted murals at several Kyrene school, including this one at Kyrene de la Mariposa, where she is talking with Principal Spencer Falgatter, is working with a Mountain Pointe teacher and a Corona del Sol student to use art as a way curbing teen suicides.
Ahwatukee muralist works with local teacher to address teen grief
Stung and alarmed by the rash of teen suicides in the East Valley – including a cluster of seven deaths in six weeks last summer – an Ahwatukee muralist has joined forces with a Mountain Pointe teacher and a Corona del Sol student to stem the tragic tide among young people, starting with students in the Tempe Union High School District.
Suzanne Whitaker is working with English teacher Lorie Warnock and accomplished 17-year-old performer Tatum Lynn Stolworthy to present a one-day retreat for teens, ages 14 to 18, that will use collaging and journal writing to help them through grief – especially the kind that might drive some young people to consider suicide.
Called Tools for Teen Grief, the workshop will run 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, at the Escalante Center, 2150 E. Orange St., Tempe. Three or four teens will join four to six adults as facilitators for the session. Teens can sign up at signupgenius. com/go/8050849aeae2ca13-teen.
Whitaker said she’s been thinking about this idea for a while.
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“I wanted to bring my art together with my volunteer work with New Song for Grieving Children – part of Hospice of the Valley – somehow,” she explained.
“I’ve worked with the teen group for four years now and enjoy watching the kids go from very sad to a place of strength at the end of a year or so,” Whitaker added. “Much of what we talk about in group is centered on ways in which we can relieve stress and overwhelming sadness or anger. If we can use these tools on a regular basis or when things are especially out of hand, it’s so useful. Even just learning to make deep breathing a habit is great.”
All three women have been touched by the deaths of teens close to them, two involving suicides.
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JUDGE
from page 1
sured household members but also points of pride in competitions that span
At a Phoenix Cat Fanciers show in Mesa last month, dozens of owners throughout the day zeroed in on her and other judges as they worked individually in small booths, called rings, and carefully examined cats competing for honors in scores of categories.
There were scores of categories and sub-classes that required the services of people like Jaegar last month.
They included categories such as Blue Point Female Birman, Balinese-Javanese and seven varieties of Persian cats. Recently, some of the shows even added a category for household pets.
For the most part, though, members largely own purebred felines.
“I am knowledgeable in more than 40 breeds recognized by CFA,” said Jaegar, who owns a 16-year-old Abyssinian cat named Red Hot Lover as well as a dog.
“I have been in the cat fancy since 1979, and found it to be an enjoyable hobby,” she said, adding she was lured by the ability to show and breed cats as well as enjoy her friends.
People like Jaegar are in such a high demand that “if I wanted to be gone every weekend I could, but I limit my judging to a couple times a month.”
The Cat Fanciers Associations pays all expenses for the judges when they do work at shows, said another Ahwatukee member, Teri Kennedy, who also serves as the public relations expert for the Phoenix Cat Fanciers and is an avid member who has raised more than 30 litters of kittens since the mid-90s.
If they have the time and inclination, the judges can work 52 weeks a year. One of the judges at the Mesa show flew in from Japan to be part of the event.
Jaegar has been something of a globetrotter herself.
“I am not limited to accepting invitations to judge only within the U.S.,” she said. “I have judged all over the world, including several countries in Europe, China, Russia, Japan, Hong Kong and Indonesia. I have had been fortunately to see many exciting historical locations around the world.”
If you’re thinking that’s not a bad way to see the world, however, consider this: “Judges spend years and years in training,” said Kennedy, noting that aspiring judges go through several different stages of training, including serving as assistants to certified judges for at least a few years. And even after they become a judge, Jaeger added, “The demands include the continuing education and knowledge of each of the breeds I am responsible to know.”
It’s no easy task becoming a judge either. For one thing, a judicial hopeful must have been breeding a specific breed for 10 years and produce a minimum of 10 Grand Champions.
“I was also required to be a licensed ring clerk – which did include going to school – a licensed master clerk (the head clerk that compiles all the results and statistics at shows), attend at least one judging school for each of the disciplines,” Jaegar said, adding:
“After meeting the minimum criteria, I had to train at a minimum of eight assignments with a training judge. Once completing that, move to apprentice, where
(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Photographer)
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Warnock lost her son in 2015. He was one of three Corona students who have taken their lives in the last three years –all classmates of Stolworthy, who started Aztec Strong, a support group with 300 teens who discuss their own issues and how to prevent teen suicide.
Whitaker said her sister died the summer before her senior year in high school, “and it changed everything for me.”
“In those days, where I lived, there was very little emphasis on therapy, meditation or yoga,” she recalled. “However, some students and I started a support group at our high school, and it was really beneficial to know others were going through the same waves of sadness from their loss. And then, Lorie, much to my surprise, said she’d been having similar thoughts about a workshop but wanted to incorporate yoga and meditation.”
Once they got to talking, Warnock and Whitaker brought in other moms.
“Our small group of moms formed for the purpose of bringing awareness to suicide prevention in Tempe Union School District and work toward concrete training for teachers and staff to recognize the signs. We’ve talked a lot about the stress our high school students are under and what we might be able to do to help. We call ourselves Parents for Suicide Prevention,” Whitaker said, adding:
“Lorie is driven to alleviate suffering for other families by educating the community regarding all the resources for emotional health and suicide prevention.”
Warnock used her Teacher of the Month award money from KTAR Radio to obtain a Tempe Vibrant city grant to fund the workshop.
Its purpose is spelled out succinctly in a flyer:
“Grief does not discriminate. Our teens are experiencing some form of grief regularly with little time or attention given to the importance of processing it in healthy ways. In addition, they are under immense pressure from social media, family and school. Many experience isolation and a lack of real connection to others as well as themselves, creating a negative and false narrative.”
The women note that grief can take all forms and involve a wide range of personal tragedies, from parents divorcing to bullying, losing a friendship to simple being ostracized from a peer group.
“This workshop will include a safe environment to focus on going within,” the flyer states. “Participants will hear teen speakers’ stories, be guided to create journal cover collages, produce their own stories of grief, take part in healthy discussions to process their feelings, and end with yoga as a calming tool – techniques they can use well after the workshop.”
The workshop is organized in a structured way so that participants can immediately begin bonding with each other, listen to teen speakers who have dealt grief, engage in intimate conversations about their feelings, start collaging or painting, start a journal and end up learning some basic yoga from Warnock.
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The workshop aims to use yoga, art and writing “somehow for grief release – all kinds of grief, a chance to tell their stories,” Whitaker said.
And before the session ends, the participants will do one more thing aimed at helping them when life seems at its darkest – exchanging phone numbers so they can turn to someone with whom they already have shared some of their deepest feelings of grief.
DiCiccio pushing charter change to curb billion-dollar pension crisis
AFN News Staff
The gorilla that looms over the new year and beyond – Phoenix’s $3.4 billion unfunded pension liability – has prompted city Councilman Sal DiCiccio and an ex-congressman to push for a voter-driven charter change requiring better controls over spending.
Former Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz and DiCiccio call their citizen initiative “Responsible Budgets,” part of a nationwide effort to address “the out-ofcontrol, unpaid pension liabilities that are destroying cities from coast to coast,” according to a release.
“Unfunded pensions are the single greatest crisis of our time. It consumes the back halls in our nation’s Capitol, and yet virtually nobody is doing anything about it,” Chaffetz said, noting the problem affects all levels of government. “None of us have the means to pay for the promises we made.”
DiCiccio said Phoenix’s approach to pensions is based on two assumptions that are not “even remotely true. “Right now, we assume the average pensioner is going to only live to be about 70 years old, and that their fund returns a rate of at least 7.4 percent a year,” he noted.
“The public has not been told the truth as to how bad the real crisis is,” he charged. “We’re lying to ourselves and our citizens.”
He also charged that while “these flawed assumptions” show Phoenix with an unfunded liability of $3.4 billion, “the real number is far, far higher.”
The Responsible Budgets Initiative calls for a three-part plan to force elected officials to make what Chaffetz and DiCiccio say are “hard choices necessary to avoid a financial collapse.”
It would require an annual accounting of city pensions, using the historical 10year average rate of return and real-world business accounting principles as well as cap spending at population and inflation growth (with the exception of police, fire and first responders) until at least 90 percent of pensions are funded.
The third plank would steer “any extra money above population and inflation growth goes to pay down the city pension debt, starting with police and firefighter pensions, ensuring we keep the promises made to our first responders,” the two men said.
He said “no one at City Hall…can tell you how much we really owe. It’s like if you’re making the minimum payment on your credit card, and you call them up to ask how much it will be to pay off your bill, and they tell you, ‘We don’t know, just keep making payments.’”
Chaffetz is the honorary chair of the national Responsible Budgets campaign, calling the pension problem “the greatest fiscal crisis of our time.”
“Almost every state, county, and city is drowning in pension debt that puts their very solvency in question, and there’s no one for cities to run to for a bailout – the federal government is in the exact same position,” he said.
The charter initiative will need about 14,000 signatures of registered voters in Phoenix to appear on the ballot. With a likelihood of a mayoral special election, the initiative could be on a ballot as soon as August 2018, DiCiccio and Chaffetz said.
“If we don’t do this now, we’re never going to be able to keep the promises we made. It’s time we require a responsible budget in the City of Phoenix,” he said.
LAKEFRONT
CONING SOON
SAL DiCICCIO
Senate ready to cap tax credits tied to non-public schools
BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services
The architect of an ever-increasing flow of state tax revenues to help send students to private and parochial schools said he’s willing to consider a cap now that the diversion has topped $74 million a year.
Senate President Steve Yarbrough acknowledged that he has been a staunch defender of the tax credits originally available only to individual taxpayers.
Old Stone Ranch
Kerby Estates
The Chandler Republican was the sponsor of a major expansion of the law, allowing corporations to give what they would otherwise owe the state in income taxes instead to organizations that provide scholarships for the private schools.
Most significant is that Yarbrough demanded – and got – an annual escalator clause, boosting the amount that corporations can divert by 20 percent a year.
For this year, the cap is $74.3 million. That rises to nearly $89.2 million next
year, $107 million the year after that more than $128 million the following year.
And there is no limit.
To put that in perspective, corporations, already benefiting from a multiyear reduction in tax rates, will pay only about $368 million of the state’s $9.8 billion in expenses this year.
That 20 percent year-over-year increase in allowable credits, unless capped, would swallow all of that up by 2027.
“You don’t have to be a mathematician to have determined that a 20 percent escalator that is compounding, at some point in time, is actually going to exceed the totality of the corporate income tax,” Yarbrough told Capitol Media Services.
The scholarship program predates –and is different from – vouchers that provide state funds directly to parents to pay for tuition and other expenses at private and parochial schools.
See YARBROUGH on page 12
COMING IN 2018!
Yarbrough also is stepping down
Legislator calls for partisan council elections to keep out liberals
BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services
AScottsdale Republican lawmaker wants to force city council and mayoral candidates to run with party labels, saying he believes it will help prevent liberals from sneaking into office.
“I want people to say, ‘Here’s who I am and here’s what I believe,’” said Rep. Jay Lawrence. And he said making people declare if they’re a Republican, Democrat or something else goes a long way to providing voters with that information.
“There are certain things that a Republican believes,” Lawrence said.
Lawrence contends the lack of a label allows the election of some people who he believes do not represent the people who put them in office. He said having to declare party affiliation keeps candidates from “meandering from side to side and kind of being conservative, but never saying, ‘But I’m a Democrat.’”
His legislation, HB 2032, comes nearly a decade after the Legislature moved precisely in the opposite direction.
Jonathan Paton, who in 2009 was a
YARBROUGH
from page 10
With scholarships, donor organizations determine the dollars given to any student; the amount of a voucher is limited. Yarbrough’s change of heart came as he announced Thursday he no longer will be executive director and general counsel of the Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization.
That’s a position he has held since the organization was first formed 20 years ago, when lawmakers – at the behest of his group and others – first opened the door to individuals to divert their
Republican state senator from Tucson, got his colleagues to forbid local candidates from running with party labels. Paton said at the time that the issues important to local voters, like fixing potholes and picking up trash, are not partisan.
But there also was a partisan reason behind the measure: Paton conceded he believed that more Republicans would get elected in Tucson, a city with a Democratic majority, if they didn’t have to run with the party label.
As it turned out, the Arizona Supreme Court voided the law, declaring the Legislature has no right to tell charter cities like Tucson how to conduct their elections.
That precedent makes it questionable whether the measure would be enforceable in any of the state’s 19 charter cities, assuming Lawrence could get it enacted. But that ruling does not apply to
tax dollars to groups like his that provide those private and parochial school scholarships.
Yarbrough and his family have benefited from the credits.
The Internal Revenue Service filings by the ACSTO show that out of the $21.3 million the organization collected in the most recent year, Yarbrough was paid $98,241 in annual salary plus another $27,840 in what he said is the cost of fringe benefits and life insurance.
On top of that, the organization paid another $659,300 to HY Processing, a firm owned by Yarbrough and his wife,
the other more than 70 communities without charters, leaving the door open for the Legislature to force them to move to partisan elections.
If passed as is, the measure would affect Gilbert. Mesa, Chandler, Tempe and Phoenix are all charter cities.
The bottom line, Lawrence said, is the labels would help voters identify the true conservatives.
“I think Scottsdale is a great example,” he said.
There, he said, conservatives oppose the Desert Discovery Center in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, a more than 47,000-square-foot facility to educate visitors about desert living. The $61 million facility would cover about 5.3 acres near a trailhead.
It’s already been scaled back from its original plans due to protests.
“But there’s a very liberal cadre that wants it built,” Lawrence said, suggest-
Linda, to handle the accounting and paperwork for the scholarships.
ACSTO also currently rents space in a building owned by Yarbrough.
A spokeswoman for ACSTO said she did not know the amount of the lease. But the IRS form lists occupancy costs of $49,180.
Yarbrough said his sponsorship of expanding the credits to also include corporations was based on his personal belief that more dollars mean more education opportunities for students who otherwise could not afford to attend a private or parochial school.
ing that a council elected on a partisan basis would never approve such a plan.
Lawrence also believes that, if nothing else, having candidates run with party affiliations will bring out more Republicans voters. He said it’s part of the whole Trump effect.
“Whether you like Trump or not, I believe there is a strength in the president that will paste itself to many who might not otherwise go to the polls,” Lawrence said. “I think there is an angry electorate at the way Trump’s being treated by the media.”
What that means, he said, is a Republican “might stand a better chance than just a nonpartisan, where you wind up with a Democrat or a friend.”
And what of Paton’s argument that most city issues are not partisan?
“Potholes are nonpartisan,” Lawrence agreed. But he said party affiliation –and even support for Trump – even can be a factor here.
“If you declare your loyalty, for example, to President Trump, I believe that, in and of itself, is an issue that says, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll take care of the potholes. The other people may not.’”
Rep. Heather Carter, R-Cave Creek, and Rep. Doug Coleman, R-Apache Junction, have sponsored legislation for at least four years seeking to limit the annual increase to a more reasonable number.
“This inflation sticks out like a sore thumb,” Carter said. More to the point, “it’s not sustainable,” citing the same compounded data that shows corporate taxes drying up at some point.
Yarbrough’s willingness to cap the credits does not temper his defense of allowing organizations like ACSTO to keep up to 10 percent of donations by both individuals and businesses for administrative expenses.
That could provoke a separate fight. Coleman wants to cut that figure in half.
He also said he had nothing to gain from his sponsorship of the corporate tax credits, saying the more than $155 million ACSTO has received in donations since 1998 comes only from individuals.
Yarbrough’s retirement from ACSTO – and his apparent change of heart –could provide the best chance in years to actually rein in the credits before they further reduce state revenues.
Yarbrough, however, said just doing the paperwork on scholarships – the part now done at ACSTO by HY Processing – eats up about 3 percent of what comes in. And he said another 2 percent goes to the companies that process the donations paid by credit card.
(Capitol Media Services) Political affiliations would help voters identify the true conservatives, Rep. Jay Lawrence said.
YEAR AHEAD
in Ahwatukee have any reason to hit the polls in August will depend on who throws their hats into the ring for U.S. Senate and governor.
Republican voters at this point are most likely facing a tough primary choice in the U.S. Senate primary.
In the fall, Tempe commercial airline pilot Frank Schmuck is also expected to go for a third run at a seat in the state Legislature by challenging Bowie.
And the fall also will likely see some contests for seats on the governing boards for both Tempe Union and Kyrene school districts.
Three seats will be up for grab on both boards and it is unclear if any of the incumbents in either district will seek reelection.
Judging by social media, the more heated contest could be in Kyrene, where some conservative Republicans have been making noise about their unhappiness with the current board.
Education also will be the focus of what’s likely to be a fierce campaign in the fall over the fate of the expanded school voucher program, which opponents managed to get on the ballot as a referendum question.
Changes in the landscape
While it remains to be seen whether President Trump will get his wall, residents living along Pecos Road will get theirs this year as sound barriers between 16 and 20 feet high – and possibly even higher in some parts – begin to rise along just about the entire stretch of the South Mountain Freeway in Ahwatukee.
The walls’ exteriors will echo architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s connection with the South Mountain foothills, where he worked on the design for a resort that wasn’t built following the 1929 stock market crash.
Designs for the walls in Ahwatukee will be divided into two separate patterns. The stretch from I-10 to just beyond 24th Street will carry an “Ocotillo Settlement” pattern “using simple materials to celebrate the spare geometric forms of desert landscape and crisp geometry of vegetation,” according to Arizona Department of Transportation plans.
From the western edge of those walls into Laveen, the “Cholla Ocotillo” pattern whose “design principles represent the simple shapes and forms on native cholla and ocotillo cactus,” those plans add.
Of course, most of those homes along those two stretches will lose their desert
views as crews barrel on to reach a late 2019 opening of the 22-mile, eight-lane freeway connecting the Chandler and West 59th Avenue interchanges along I-10.
The $1.7 billion project also will affect what residents see when they look at the mountains as crews begin blasting midyear to carve a 200-foot-wide freeway path across three South Mountain peaks.
Although ADOT has been conducting smaller-scale blasting along portions of Pecos Road since August, it has not yet released information on the noise that resident can expect from what likely will be more aggressive blasting on the mountain.
Ahwatukee Lakes
It’s likely that 2018 will have barely begun before a state Superior Court judge issues his long-awaited verdict on the fight over the future of the defunct Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course.
The judge was supposed to have rendered a decision by the end of last month in the case, in which two residents want the owner, The True Life Companies, to
restore golf to the 101-acre site, which was closed five years ago.
True Life wants the judge to overturn land-use regulations governing the site, claiming a golf course is no longer profitable.
But will a decision mean anything for the course’s immediate future? Not likely.
At a bare minimum, the losing side could appeal, further prolonging any resolution.
And True Life during the trial in October already indicated that if it can’t build houses on the site, it might just declare bankruptcy and walk away from Ahwatukee Lakes.
K-12 education
Changes in both Tempe Union and Kyrene schools are likely, as a new superintendent takes the reigns of the former while officials in the latter district continue to implement a number of major changes.
Tempe Union Superintendent Kenneth Baca retires June 30 and will be replaced by Associate Superintendent Kevin Men-
divil.
Kyrene is in the process of implementing a broad series of changes in the district to give older children more choices in electives and introduce new programs such as the International Baccalaureate program at Kyrene Middle School in Tempe and a K-8 campus at Kyrene Traditional Academy in Chandler.
City taxes and services
There’s some good news and potentially a lot more bad news for Ahwatukee residents coming from City Hall.
On the happy side, hikers can expect the Pima Canyon Trail Head to open in a matter of weeks following a six-month rehabilitation that includes permanent bathrooms, expanded parking and a ramada.
Motorists also are likely to see a lot more resurfacing activity in Ahwatukee as part of a three-year plan to re-do all the streets’ surfaces in the community.
But is a tax hike also looming in Ahwatukee residents’ future?
City officials painted a grim forecast a month ago as they continue grappling with a $3.5 unfunded pension liability, and said either service cuts or some kind of tax increase will be needed.
Hangovers from 2017
Two major issues affecting hundreds of residents still await an explanation, let alone a resolution.
Huge spikes in water meter readings that occurred during the summer for many city water customers have yet to be explained, leaving them still licking their wallet wounds from having to fork over budget-busting payments.
City Councilman Sal DiCiccio in October got five professionals who live in Ahwatukee to form a task force that is studying everything from the city’s software to the meters themselves.
It’s unclear when – or even if – they’ll find an explanation that doesn’t involve leaks, which many of the affected customers did not appear to have since the readings in most cases returned to normal levels the following month.
Then there’s the stench that seems to periodically invade an area between 40th and 32nd streets and Pecos Road and Chandler Boulevard.
A joint city-county task force, led by the Phoenix Department for Environmental Services – is trying to track down the odor’s source.
Business and community life
Two major additions to Ahwatukee’s local business scene will have a big impact
(Tom Sanfilippo/Special to AFN)
The changing landscape along Pecos Road, including the area around 48th Street, is being documented by Ahwatukee resident Tom Sanfilippo via stunning overhead shots taken by a cameramounted drone.
(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Staff Photographer)
State Sen. Sean Bowie, along with Democratic state Rep. Mitzi Epstein, center, and Republican Rep. Jill Norgaard, will all be seeking reelection later this year. They gathered
Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce.
Art that Connects Heaven & Earth
you judge a minimum eight shows then advance to Approval Pending and then Approved in One Specialty (longhair or shorthair). Then move through the same process for the second specialty. It could take upwards to five years to get through the process, eventually being eligible for Approved All-breed Judge.”
One of her first assignments involved judge a group of 25 Maine Coons that already had achieved Grand Champion status.
“Having to examine and compare each of the cats to the written Maine Coon standard was very challenging,” she said.
“Since it was my first training assignment, I had to remember to make sure my table was clean, make sure I had written the awards in my judge’s book and just work at learn the timing necessary for getting through a large class like that.”
Then again, she was no raw rookie to this rarefied group of pet owners.
“One of the requirements of getting into the judging program is your commitment and knowledge of a minimum of one breed,” she explained. “I have bred Exotics (Shorthair Persians), Persians, Abyssinians, Manx and Norwegian Forest cats. My cats have achieved Grand
Curl are the profile and the length of body.”
It’s not all serious work.
Last month, Jaegar was judged the Best Christmas Costume entrants, an event that drew about 40 onlookers as she carried each entrant individually from its cage to a small lab table, where she held it, petted it, eyeballed it carefully.
Some contestants weren’t all that thrilled to be wearing elf caps, red coats with bells and, in one case, a Nutcracker tutu.
nual yearbooks that are an inch thick or bigger that are filled with portraits of cats that won a championship medal.
Achieving that status usually involves attending a number of shows – often around the country – and accumulating points that entitle their cats to an increasingly higher status in each subsequent competition.
Racks of medals in different colors and designs could be seen throughout the Mesa Convention Center, where last month’s show was held.
Jaegar sees a universal human element in the cat owners who compete for those medals.
Champion and Grand Premier titles as well as national and regional wins.”
Jaegar said most breeds “are unique because of their specific things attributed” to standards set by a council of breeders “who work to define and improve their breeds.”
“For example, the American Curl has ears that curl toward the back of their head,” she said. “The degree and amount of curl is defined as to what is desirable in that. Other attributes for the American
Jaegar expertly took each cat through a small set of paces that included waving a wand in front of them to see if they’d get playful. Most did not appear in the mood to bat the wand.
Jaegar said the biggest change she has seen is in efforts by breeders to create cats of different colors. Because a council writes the standards for any breed, the breeders “want to see those colors in the championship ring.”
The Cat Fanciers Association takes the work of judges seriously, producing an-
“I think people enjoy working toward a goal and in the Cat Fancy, that goal is to produce and show exceptional cats that meet or exceed the standards,” she said. ”I also think people enjoy the spending time with their friends and producing quality examples of their breeds.”
There are only three Cat Fanciers Association affiliates in Arizona, all based in the Valley.
Besides showing off their cats, competing for medals and sometimes working to create new breeds, members also give back to the community by providing support to a broad array of animal rescue organizations.
To learn more: phxfeline.com.
(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Photographer)
Barbara Jaegar judged this feline the best-dressed cat for the holidays during the Phoenix Feline Fanciers’ show in Mesa last month.
on how at least some residents might be spending their free time and the economic fortunes of at least one major intersection.
Mountainside Fitness is returning to the place where it started as it opens a gym in the old Sports Authority building at a strip mall on the northeastern corner of Ray Road and 48th Street.
Almost simultaneous to its late January opening in the same strip mall, a massive amusement center where kids and adults can bounce on trampolines and specially designed walls to their heart’s content will be opening. That facility, called Urban Air Adventure Park, is opening next to Mountainside within a matter of a week or two. Both businesses likely will give a big shot in the arm to that intersection.
Meanwhile, barring some unforeseen developments, Ahwatukee residents can expect the return of some of their most cherished traditions, such as the Festival of Lights and its related beer-and-wine event in spring and the kick-off party the day after Thanksgiving as well as the Easter Parade.
But will the Red White and Boom! In-
watukee anyway since the staging area for the fireworks had been in the South Mountain Freeway path.
Chamber President/ CEO Lindy Lutz Cash said that freeway construction would have eliminated that staging area last year.
One possibility remains: Last year, local promoter Tim Matykiewicz tried to raise public contributions to stage a smaller version but didn’t reach his fundraising goal in time.
He wanted to hold a smaller fireworks show at Desert Foothills Park.
dependence Day fireworks show return after last year’s bust?
Hard to say.
The Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored the years-
long event, cancelled when it abruptly lost an unidentified partner that was going to put up the cash for the show.
Even if the chamber finds a partner, chances are the show won’t be held in Ah-
Whether he’ll try again this year remains to be seen since right now he’s busy putting the finishing details on a big hot-air balloon festival in the West Valley scheduled for next month.
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Community
Ahwatukee woman bring words to those who can’t read
BY COTY DOLORES MIRANDA AFN Contributor
With his red-tipped white cane tapping before him, Steven Losea is well-known around his Ahwatukee Portofino Condominium neighborhood and adjacent Fry’s Food Store.
He says he’s known as “the blind guy,” a moniker for which he harbors no umbrage as he’s been totally blind since 1981 due to optic neuritis in both eyes – a rare condition that struck later in life.
Wednesdays, after the grocery store flyers are released online and after Losea completes his two hours in the condo project’s gym and swims laps for another half hour, the active 68-year-old heads to Fry’s to score needed weekly sale items.
He’s aware of what’s on sale because he listens to Sun Sounds of Arizona volunteer Rose Dryer read the area supermarket ads. He also stays apprised of local news on his free-provided Sun Sounds radio set.
Both programs are the most popular services provided by Tempe Sun Sounds, the home office for Sun Sounds of Arizona, which has affiliate radio services in Tucson and Flagstaff.
“We are probably the one of the few places where you can hear grocery ads and obituaries,” said Director Andrea Pasquale, a 10-year Ahwatukee resident. “The grocery ads are one of the most popular programs, next to local news.”
Founded in 1979, Sun Sounds of Arizona is a service not only for the blind.
“We are available to anyone who can’t read print readily,” said Pasquale, who was involved with another reading service in her home state of Connecticut.
“Some people think the service is only for the blind, but we’re there for anyone who can’t read print readily,” she said. “It could be dyslexia, a traumatic brain injury where they can’t concentrate on the printed word, or arthritis or a quadriplegic who can’t physically hold a newspaper or magazine.”
The free service offers programming for all ages, including children. Magazines for men, women and teens are included in the 24-hour lineup. And local news, unedited
and read from daily and weekly newspapers, is specific to the Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff service areas.
“We don’t charge for the service or the radios we send out. Keeping people informed on the same newspapers and magazines as their friends is important to us,” said Pasquale. “We don’t editorialize or censor material or language. We’re nothing more than a conduit from the author to the listener.”
Sun Sounds of Arizona recently was honored by the Phoenix Mayor’s Committee on Disability Issues with the 2017 Business Excellence Award for Nonprofits.
Pasquale said Sun Sounds of Arizona is possibly one of the most decorated reading
services in the country, also garnering awards for their kids programming.
Providing these programs takes a cadre of dedicated volunteers – more than 400 statewide and approximately 30 at the Tempe office/studio located in the Rio Salado College Administration Building.
One is Tempe attorney Paul Weich, a 27-year Ahwatukee resident who has been volunteering as a reader for seven years. He reads Phoenix New Times and occasionally other local newspapers.
A former radio newsman in Santa Barbara and Tucson before receiving his law degree, Weich said prior experience with elder relatives who found themselves struggling to read newspapers they’d always read is one of reason for his volunteering.
“I think it’s important for everyone to be able to hear original reporting and writing without filters,” said Weich, 54. “Sun Sounds helps people keep connected with their community, and it helps me do the same.”
Mesa residents Chuck and Rene Rinaldi, who upon retirement in 2009 emigrated from Connecticut, have volunteered at Sun Sounds for five years.
“I first became aware of the service through the Talking Books program at the Arizona State Library, where I also volunteered for a few years,” said Rene Rinaldi, a former high school Latin and French teacher who spent 25 years as an administrator at Wesleyan University before retiring.
She began at Sun Sounds by filling a need for a Vanity Fair magazine reader.
“That was something I read
regularly on my own. It was a good fit, and I’ve been doing it ever since, Rene Rinaldi said, adding:
“Throughout my entire life, no activity has been so important to me or brought me more satisfaction than reading. Consequently, I feel strongly everybody should have the opportunity to have access to any and all printed material, and I am happy to be part of providing that service.”
Chuck Rinaldi is a control board operator as well as a reader.
“In the words of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, there is no greater calling than to serve our fellow human beings. I’m proud to be able to use the skills I’ve been given to help open up the world of all kinds of literature to the visibly impaired,” said Chuck Rinaldi, who retired after 39 years in secondary education, the last five as a high school assistant principal.
He currently teaches psychology at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.
Volunteer readers must first pass a reading test and then are trained in recording and editing programs.
Donations are key to continuing the free services to children, teens and adults.
“Donations are an essential part of this organization,” said Linda Pastori, general manager of Sun Sounds and KJZZ/KBACH. “The service and radios are free to the end user so we rely on donations, grants, business and civic support, and fundraising to pay for our broadcast and operating expenses.
Pastori explained that a $25 donation pays for a radio for a new listener, $63 buys the production and broadcast of a halfhour program, $125 the production of an hour program and $250, the production for one month of a half-hour program.
Like some other nonprofits, they also accept donations of motor vehicles and boats, and they provide charitable bequest opportunities.
For Losea, programming opens up opportunities and knowledge, noting: “I have no vision whatsoever anymore, and I consider Sun Sounds part of my support system.” Information: SunSounds.org The nonprofit is also on Facebook and Twitter.
(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN photographer)
Andrea Pasquale of Ahwatukee is director of Tempe Sun Sounds, which brings the written word to people who cannot read.
(Special to AFN) Volunteer and Ahwatukee resident Cynthia Eleck holds the honorable mention she received for her program, Kid's Space, from the International Association of Audio Information Services.
Ahwatukee residents opened hearts for Kiwanis foster drive
Nearly 200 teens in group foster homes had a merrier Christmas last month because Ahwatukee residents opened their hearts – and their wallets – for the Ahwatukee Kiwanis Club’s annual gift drive.
Often known as the forgotten foster children because their age excludes them as recipients of most children’s toy drives, the teens touched the heart of Andi Pettyjohn, who has run the drive for several years.
“The Kiwanis Club of Ahwatukee is very grateful for the outpouring of support for our Foster Youth Christmas Drive this year,” she said.
While the Kiwanians had hoped to hit the same number of group homes they did in 2016, donors’ generosity helped the club exceed that goal, nearly doubling the group homes from 13 two years ago to 22.
That meant 193 teens got gifts at a time when they likely would be overlooked by Santa.
“Thank you to the community for hosting collection boxes, donating money, gift items, gift cards, time to shop for gifts, for baking cookies, wrapping hundreds of gifts, sorting hundreds of gifts, and delivering hundreds of gifts,” she said.
Pettyjohn added that some employees of local companies, such as those at Vision Community Management, donated gifts to the foster youth instead of buying gifts for the “Secret Santa” they had done at work in years past.
“Some individuals volunteered to provide meals for a couple of the group homes,” she added. “Some community members also committed to providing a group home with birthday celebrations each month.”
Pettyjohn said teens’ responses were touching, adding that they were “very happy and very appreciative.”
“It brought tears to my eyes when one of the teen boys, after seeing a bag of gifts with his name on it said ‘Wow!
You’re telling me all the gifts in here are for me?’” she said, adding:
“I won’t forget the wish list of one 15-year-old boy who wrote, ‘I will appreciate anything that I receive. Another boy said he wanted socks for Christmas. They all received necessary clothing items, some received jackets, blankets, and/or shoes, hygiene items and at least one fun gift, like a skateboard, hockey stick, tablet, gift card or so on.”
The response to the Kiwanians’ drive was so great that they received more clothing that needed as gifts, so the extra items will be delivered to the foster homes for distribution.
Extra money donated will be used to buy duffel bags “for as many kids as we can,” Pettyjohn said.
The needs of these teens don’t end when the Christmas tree goes down.
“Our help is needed desperately all year,” Pettyjohn stressed, adding that she is gratified than the drive helped increase the public’s awareness of the foster teens.
“Having gifts under the tree is great, but the real need is to have someone who cares enough to be willing to spend some time and possibly mentor some of these teens,” she said.
People interested in helping foster teens in any way throughout the year, or in more information about the Kiwanis Club, should email info@ ahwatukeekiwanis.org.
pmaryniak@ ahwatukee.com
(Special to AFN)
Joe and Elnora Utrera help wrap gifts from the Ahwatukee Kiwanis Club for teens in group foster homes. In the background, from left, Carrie and Howard Chipman, Andi Pettyjohn, Carmen Paiz and Dale Matheson
(Special to AFN)
Tami Johnson, left, and Andrea Szlapka joined in on the fun of wrapping gifts for the Kiwanis Club's foster kids gift drive.
Lost dog creates anxiety, then becomes a Christmas miracle
BY TOM HEMINGWAY
Guest Writer
s many of our families and friends know, we have a 16-year-old Jack Russell Terrier, too smart and ornery for his own good, but we love him. He is suffering from old age maladies and sleeps most of the time.
On Christmas night after a lovely time at the kids’ house with family, my wife Lee Ann spotted a prowling lone coyote on the way home, saying it gave her an ominous feeling.
We came home to the house at 10:30 p.m. to no dog. Gone, the side gate ajar. It was 40 degrees outside and there was no sign of him.
We searched the neighborhood with flashlights, calling like sirens in the quiet dark neighborhood. After an hour with the kids and granddaughter’s help, nothing. Despair set it. Never before had this happened.
Lee Ann said “I told you I wanted to take Rusty to Norene’s with the family for Christmas.”
“He knew where we were going and it’s a special day,” I retorted. “The dog can’t comprehend occasions and know plans.”
“He’s an animal. He’s smart and he felt left out,” Lee Ann cried. “He feels lonely.”
Then a real shocker hit us: there on the kitchen counter was Rusty’s collar and tags.
Oh my God, I trimmed Rusty’s coat
and forgot to put his collar on. He’s doomed. We were pretty devastated and tears welled up in us. He’s lost and no way to ID him.
Don’t worry, Grandma, Leah said, someone has found him and he’ll be okay. Lee Ann and I looked at each other and thought the same thing: probably a coyote or a car found him first.
It was a long night. We went to bed in silence both feeling the gravity of the situation and dreading the outcome. Fitful sleep and praying and wishing to hear the slap-plap of the doggie door.
Nothing.
A cold bright morning arose. I imagined the horror of a partial carcass on the golf course adjoining us and went to the golf course manager first thing and explained the situation.
I said we want him back in any condition. The manager was cordial and said he hoped we would be feeding him by day’s end. I said that is overly optimistic, but thank you.
We have a neighborhood internet website that posts news, events and neighborly things, as lost dogs.
I logged on and the first thing I saw was a post for a found dog, 48th and El-
liot Roads, right up the street. My heart skipped a beat as I read it.
Nope. Black and white Boston Terrier mix. I scrolled down several more lost animal headings, then I saw a caption: “Lost pup found on abandoned golf course on Christmas Day, scared and skittish. Band aid on left ear, well groomed.”
Then, two pictures of Rusty in someone’s lap in a car.
“Lee Ann, come here. I found Rusty”
She cried.
Two of the rescuers were Deb Lusk and Tiffany Hawkins.
A half-hour later, Rusty was back with us, no worse for wear. The lady who found him said he was wandering her street and when she went for him he ran to the old golf course and then she spotted the coyote nearby.
She called her neighbors to corral Rusty, who was not interested in being captured. Rusty was 11/2 miles from home, across two very busy streets, exactly half the distance to Norene’s house, where the family celebrated Christmas.
Best Christmas present ever.
-Tom Hemingway is an Ahwatukee resident who wanted to share his Christmas moment with AFN readers.
(Tom Heemingway/Special to AFN)
This is how Rusty's owners posted the news of happy ending after he ran away on Christmas Day.
Cat, dog need help relocating from a rescue shelter
Acat and dog began the new year without a home and Friends for Life rescue shelter hopes some Ahwatukee residents will change their status soon.
Friends spokeswoman Jannelle Cosgriff said Robin, a domestic short-haired tabby/torti, is “a whole lot of fun with a little bit of sass.
“She can jump and play and run here and there, but she also likes receiving affection from her humans, sitting in a welcome lap to be pet. She’s an all-around sweet girl,” Cosgriff added
Robin’s adoption fee is $95. At Friends for Life Animal Rescue, all animals are altered, vaccinated, microchipped, de-wormed, and cats are tested for FELV/FIV. Information: FFLcats@azfriends.org, 480-497-8296, or azfriends.org.
Twinkle, who answers to Trooper, joined Friends for Life Animal Rescue in late November from the Humane Society of Yuma, where his owner surrendered him because the family had too many animals.
The 4-year-old Chihuahua blend “was in a home for a while, so finding himself living at our adoption center is a little overwhelming for him,” Cosgriff said.
“He’s a sweet little boy who would love to be back in a home with a family that loves him to pieces.” His adoption fee is $125. Information: 480-497-8296, FFLDogs@azfriends.org, or azfriends.org.
Garden Club sets first meeting of the new year
Prospective members are welcome to attend the first meeting of the year for the Desert Pointe Garden Club at 9 a.m. Jan. 8.
The program that day will be presented by the Desert Valley Orchid Society. The club normally meets the first Monday of each month September through May at the Ahwatukee Recreation Center, 5001 E. Cheyenne Drive. It is not necessary to belong to the Recreation Center to join the club. In addition to the meetings, members also sponsor a butterfly garden, renovate the yards of certain group homes for the disabled, maintain the Blue Star Memorial on Warner Road and participate in many other outreach projects. Information: 480-759-4407 or dpgc.org.
Need a job? Try Mountainside Fitness this week
Mountainside Fitness is holding a job fair this week to fill more than 60 positions at the Ahwatukee location it is opening Jan. 27 at 4820 E. Ray Road.
The job fair is the new location and will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 5 and 6.
Positions that need to be filled include front desk attendants, childcare attendants, group fitness instructors, personal trainers, fitness managers and maintenance technicians.
AROUND AHWATUKEE
During the job fairs, there will be tents set up in the parking lot where applicants can meet management teams and be interviewed. Candidates can also apply online at mountainsidefitness. com/careers/ or via ziprecruiter.com.
“In our industry, there is almost nothing more exciting than being part of a club opening team. We are delighted to be hiring for two brand new locations right now,” said Robyn Klawitter, senior vice president for Mountainside Fitness. “Our employees are the heart of our company. They interact with our customers every day and are truly the face of Mountainside. We are driven to hire good people and make them the best they can be because we are only as good as the product our employees put forward.”
Ahwatukee Mamas recruiting local mothers
A private moms group called Ahwatukee Mamas is hoping interested mothers will join an annual membership drive slated for 9:30-11:30 a.m. Jan. 15 at Desert Foothills Park in Ahwatukee.
Spokeswoman Cindy Smith said this “diverse group of women who support each other in all stages of motherhood” is for both stay-at-home and working moms.
Members have access to a private Facebook page and calendar of events that include play dates, park meet ups, field trips, Moms Night Out, book club as well as community service projects and donations to local non-profit organizations. Members are encouraged to attend one event
a month..
A $30 annual membership fee, prorated throughout the year so members can join anytime, helps support larger activities that include a trunk or treat and spring fling.
Information: facebook.com/events/158479678118178
Fitness/nutrition seminar focuses on all ages
Carlos Mange, personal trainer and owner of Body by Design, 4206 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee, is holding a fitness and nutrition seminar 1-3 p.m. Jan. 13 at his studio.
He will discuss why bodies don’t respond to some fitness/nutrition plans, how people can live better and longer and why exercise is the best therapy. The seminar focuses on all ages, especially from 40 up.
Seating is limited. Reservations: 480-650-1230.
Ahwatukee Scout troop slates Christmas tree pickup
Ahwatukee Boy Scout Troop 278 can pick up fresh Christmas trees now that the holidays are history.
For the seventh consecutive year, the troop is collecting them as a fund raiser, asking for donations of $10 to $20. Curbside pickups will be 8 a.m.-noon Saturday, Jan. 6.
The money helps the troop pay for activities throughout the year. Trees need to be left at
curbside and all decorations removed.
To arrange for a pickup: troop278trees@gmail. com.
Senior Olympics registration is now open for 2018 games
Registration is underway for Ahwatukee residents 50 and older who want to participate in the 2018 Arizona Senior Olympics.
The games will be held Feb. 17-March 11 at various venues across the state. There is a wide variety of games, from bocce ball to tennis, running to swimming. The purpose is to encourage health, fitness and safety in a fin and competitive atmosphere.
The games, sponsored by the Arizona Lifelong Fitness Foundation, are in their 37th year. Information: seniorgames.org or 602-274-7742.
CALENDAR
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 3
Book discussion
Read the book and join each month’s lively discussion the first Wednesday of the month. January’s read: “Daring to Drive” by Manal al-Sharif. February’s read: “Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance.
DETAILS>> 7-7:45 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Free. No registration required.
TUESDAY, JAN. 9
LEGO Lab
Children accompanied by an adult can stop by for fun LEGO building time the second Tuesday of each month. #stem DETAILS>> 4-5 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Ages 6-11. Free. No registration required.
SATURDAY, JAN. 13
Teen Council meeting
This group meets to plan teen events at the library. Join us to earn community service hours, make friends, have fun!
DETAILS>> 2-3 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Ages 12-18. Free. No registration required.
TUESDAY, JAN. 16
Writers Critique Group
Bring five double-spaced pages of writing to get feedback from your fellow writers.
DETAILS>> 6-7:45 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Free. No registration required.
SATURDAY, JAN. 20
Blood drive at Body Firm
A blood drive will be held at The Body Firm in Ahwatukee DETAILS>> 8 a.m.-noon, 3636 E. Ray Road, Ste. 36. To make appointment: www.bloodhero.com and search for Body Firm blood drive.
THURSDAY, JAN. 25
Talk with local police
Tukee Talks, the quarterly meeting for Ahwatukee residents with representatives of the Phoenix Police Department’s South Mountain Precinct, which includes Ahwatukee, holds its first session of 2018.
DETAILS>> 6-8 p.m. Friendship Community Church, 9807 S. 48th St., Ahwatukee.
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 31
Unleash Untapped Potential
Turn your vision into reality by setting goals for your career and business that will motivate you to succeed. Presented by Margo Brown, productivity coach and founder of Wave Productivity.
DETAILS>> 6-7:30 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Free. Registration required via the calendar at phxlib.org.
SUNDAYS
Learn gardening from pros
Learn desert gardening by getting your hands dirty with the Ahwatukee Community Gardening Project. Share in the knowledge, the produce, and the smiles. All ages welcome. Bring sun protection and water. Tools optional.
DETAILS>> 7-9 a.m. in the northwest corner of the
park at 4700 E. Warner Road, Ahwatukee. Information : acgarden.org or 480-759-5338.
Chess players, knitters clubs
Two new clubs meet in Ahwatukee every Sunday the chess club for players at all skill levels and Knitters Anonymous for all levels of knitters and people who crochet. DETAILS>> The Chess Club meets at 11 a.m. at Einstein’s at 48th Street and Ray Road. Knitters Anonymous meets at 2 p.m. at Pomegranate’s Café, 40th and Chandler Boulevard. For either club, call 480-246-1912 for more information.
Little Bytes
Kids can learn the foundations of coding and computer commands before they can write or spell! Fun activities, apps and games will teach the fundamentals of simple logic, sequencing and coding language. #stem DETAILS>> 2-3 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Ages 4-7. Free. No registration required.
Coder Dojo
What do video games, robots and self-driving cars have in common? Code! You can become a coding master by learning Code.org, Kodable, Scratch, Tynker, HTML and more. Beginners welcome. #stem DETAILS>> 3-4 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Ages 8-17. Free. No registration required.
MONDAYS
Ahwatukee women can meet Ahwatukee Foothills Friend & Neighbors offers local women a chance to meet other ladies who like to have fun at monthly meetings and in its interest groups. The group meets the fourth Monday of each month at local venues to enjoy lunch or happy hour and sometimes a program. In December, a holiday dinner-dance will be held Dec. 8 at the Foothills Golf Club. Payment is always due a week ahead of the event.
DETAILS>> affanwomensgroup@gmail.com.
Babytime with Sign Language for Crawlers
Accompanied by a favorite adult, babies birth to crawling enjoy songs, music, rhymes, books, interactive stories, simple sign language words, activities to promote movement, and playtime. #pplstorytime #babytimewithsign
DETAILS>> 10:30-11 a.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Ages birth to crawling. Free. Tickets are limited and available in the library 30 minutes before program begins.
Chamber offers networking
The Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce networking and leads group is open to chamber members. DETAILS>> Noon, Native Grill and Wings, 5030 E. Ray Road, Ahwatukee. Gina Jenkins, 480-990-5444.
LD 18 Dems meet monthly
Legislative District 18 Democrats gather monthly, usually the second Monday, to share news, opportunities, food and laughter. Meetings include guest speakers, legislative updates, how-to sessions and Q&A. Volunteer or just enjoy an evening with like-minded folks. DETAILS>>For times and places: ld18democrats.org/ calendar.
AMENITIES INCLUDE:
• Heated Salt Water Swimming Pool & Spa
• Foothills Skydeck with Scenic Mountain View
• Open to the public tuk Urban Kafé for Casual Meals and Drinks
• The Crave Dining Room, Bistro and Seasonal Veranda Grille
• State-of-the-art Movie Theater with Daily Showings
• Fitness Center
• Art Studio & Game Room
• Beauty Salon/Barber Shop
• Scheduled Transportation
• Front Desk Concierge
• Wi-Fi throughout Community
• 24/7 Emergency Response
• Weekly Housekeeping & Personal Laundry Join us for a Free Informational Breakfast & Tour on Jan. 16TH, Feb. 15TH or Mar. 15TH at 10 a.m. (480) 485-3000
Dr. Sian Proctor, a member of South Mountain Community College’s geology, sustainability, and planetary science faculty, returned on July 17, 2017 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Teacher at Sea Program (TAS). She believes in taking advantage of professional growth opportunities and gives presentations to students around the country on how a career in Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (STEM) has changed her life.
Dr. Proctor is one of nearly 700 educators to have participated in the TAS program since its inception in 1990. She set sail on the NOAA vessel Oscar Dyson to work with scientists tasked with completing an acoustictrawl survey of Walleye Pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) around Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Alaskan pollock is the world’s secondmost important fish species in terms of total catch. Scientists continually monitor the population to prevent overfishing. Even though Dr. Proctor is not a biologist she enjoyed being at sea and learning about the science behind creating sustainable fisheries.
SMCC FACULTY DR. SIAN PROCTOR RETURNS FROM GLOBAL ADVENTURES
Pedro de Atacama. While in Chile, she went on her first meteorite hunt and helped retrieve a meteorite from the Atacama Desert.
“I love having my summers off so that I can travel and engage in professional development. The best part about being a geoscientist is that everywhere I go, there is something for me to learn about our amazing Earth.”
“ It is important to engage in lifelong learning and to push yourself outside your comfort zone”
- Dr. Proctor
In 2016, Dr. Proctor was selected for the Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassadors Program and visited several of the country’s astronomy facilities. Through that experience she met astronomers from around the United States which opened up even more opportunities. She started her 2017 summer off with 2-weeks at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. doing astronomy education outreach with one of the ACEAP ambassadors. She then returned to Chile with another ACEAP ambassador to engage in STEM outreach with k-12 schools in San
Dr. Proctor’s past adventures also include spending a month in Barrow, Alaska in 2014 with the National Science Foundation’s PolarTREC program, and serving as education outreach officer for a 4-month NASA funded Mars simulation called HI-SEAS. She has had a life-long love of space exploration and was a finalist for the 2009 NASA astronaut selection process. Her goal is to be a role model for students to pursue STEM careers and she believes in leading by example.
“I hope that when students see me traveling the world, making connections, and creating unique learning opportunities then maybe they will be inspired to do the same.”
Dr. Proctor frequently appears in science-related media programming. She is currently featured in the Science Channel show Strange Evidence airing on Tuesday nights. She also appeared in the 2016 PBS series Genius by Stephen Hawking, Episode 2: Are We Alone. In 2012, she appeared in two episodes of the Cox7 Arizona series The STEM Journals. In 2010, she spent two months filming the Discovery Channel reality TV show called The Colony.
CALENDAR
TUESDAYS
Estrangement support
Although rarely discussed, family estrangement is far more common than most people realize. The estranged suffer from loneliness, lack of self-esteem, guilt, anger and depression. Desert Foothills United Methodist Church provides a support group that meets the first Tuesday of every month. The public is invited to the “Living Loss” sessions. No questions asked, and anonymity will be respected.
DETAILS>> 7 p.m., first Tuesday of every month; 2156 E. Liberty Lane, Ahwatukee. Free. Information: 480-4601025 and office@desertfoothills.org
Homework help
Volunteer Eric will help with homework.
DETAILS>> 4-5:30 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Ages 5-18. Free. No registration required.
Coloring for grown-ups
Adult coloring promotes mindfulness, reduces stress, and improves cognitive motor skills. We’ll provide the markers, crayons, colored pencils, and coloring sheets; you just bring yourself and your friends!
DETAILS>> 1:30-3 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Free. No registration required.
Chair yoga featured
Inner Vision Yoga Studio offers chair yoga to help seniors and people recovering from injuries to stay fit.
DETAILS>> 1:30-2:30 p.m., 4025 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee. $5 per class.
RED CARPET WORKSHOP
Toastmasters sharpen skills
Improve your speaking skills and meet interesting people at Ahwatukee Toastmasters meetings
DETAILS>> 6:45-8 a.m at the Dignity Health Community Room, 4545 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee.
Power Partners available
The Ahwatukee Chamber offers Power Partners every Tuesday except the second Tuesday of the month, when attendees are encouraged to attend the Wake Up Ahwatukee Morning Mixer. Unlike our Monday Power Group, this group will be non-category specific, meaning you can have more than one member in each business category.
DETAILS>>7:45-8:45 a.m. Early Baker, 15645 S. 40th St., Ahwatukee. Free Information:. Gina Jenkins, 480-990-5444.
WEDNESDAYS
Sit, Stay, Read!
Young readers & listeners can sign up for reading time with a registered therapy animal & human team. Read to Truffles on Wednesdays.
DETAILS>> Wednesdays, 3:00-4:00 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Ages 4-10. Free. No registration required.
Montessori holds open house
Ahwatukee Foothills Montessori holds an open house weekly. It includes a short talk about Montessori education, followed by a tour of its campus.
DETAILS>> 4 p.m. Wednesdays, 3221 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee. Information: 480-759-3810
Grief support is free
Hospice of the Valley offers a free ongoing grief support
group for adults and is open to any adult who has experienced a loss through death. No registration required.
DETAILS>> 6-7 p.m. first and third Wednesdays, Pecos Community Center, 17010 S. 48th St. 602-636-5390 or HOV.org
Foothills Women meet
An informal, relaxed social organization of about 90 women living in the Ahwatukee Foothills/Club West area. A way to escape once a month to have fun and meet with other ladies in the area. Guest speaker or entertainment featured.
DETAILS>> 7 p.m. second Wednesday of the month, Foothills Golf Club, 2201 E. Clubhouse Drive. Contact Shelley Miller, president, at 602-527-6789 or essentiallyshelley@gmail.com
Parents can ‘drop in’
Parents are invited to join a drop-in group to ask questions, share ideas or just listen to what’s going on with today’s teenagers.
DETAILS>> 5:30-7 p.m. second Wednesday of each month. Maricopa Cooperative Extension, 4341 E. Broadway Road, Phoenix. Free. RSVP at 602-827-8200, ext. 348, or rcarter@cals.arizona.edu.
‘Dems and Donuts’ set
Legislative District 18 Democrats gather for an informal chat. DETAILS>> Free and open to the public 7:30-9 a.m. the third Wednesday of the month at Denny’s, 7400 W. Chandler Blvd., Chandler. RSVP: marie9@q.com or 480592-0052.
THURSDAYS
Teen Thursdays
Ironwood Library provides the snacks and fun every Thursday; teens just bring themselves and a friend!
First Thursdays: video games; second Thursdays: art-making; third Thursdays: Upcycling Makerspace. Fourth Thursdays: Library Volunteer Opportunities. DETAILS>> 4-5:30 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Ages 12-18. Free. No registration required.
Kiwanis meets weekly
The Ahwatukee Kiwanis Club meets weekly and welcomes newcomers.
DETAILS>>7:30 a.m. Biscuits Restaurant, 4623 E. Elliot Road, Ahwatukee. Info: mike.maloney2003@gmail.com.
Mothers of Preschoolers gather Free child care for ages 0 to 5.
DETAILS>>9 a.m. second and fourth Thursday, Foothills Baptist Church, 15450 S. 21st St. Call Kim at 480759-2118, ext. 218.
‘Gentle yoga’ offered
Inner Vision Yoga Studio offers “gentle floor yoga” for core strengthening and healthy backs.
DETAILS>>> 1:30-2:30 p.m. 4025 E. Chandler, Ahwatukee. $5 per class. Information: 480-330-2015 or donna@innervisionyoga.com.
SATURDAYS
Sit, Stay, Read!
Young readers & listeners can sign up for reading time with a registered therapy animal & human team. First & Third Saturdays: Read with Raven and Cassie. Second Saturday: Read with JoJo.
— Email calendar items to pmaryniak@ahwatukees.com
THECHANDLER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
www.ahwatukee.com
It’s time to cast your votes for the Best of Ahwatukee
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
OK, Ahwatukee. Get ready to vote. Only you won’t have to put up with politicians and a lot of rhetoric.
This time, it will be fun, as the Ahwatukee Foothills News rolls out its annual Best of Ahwatukee ballot.
Yes, I know, social media and the internet in general have made lists and voting for best of this and that almost tiresome for many of us.
But what sets this poll apart are two things:
• You and you alone decide.
• Everyone and every business you select serves you and your neighbors directly, in your backyard, down the block or near an HOA a few miles away.
As in the past, you will have great freedom in this election. It’s not like an
Arizona primary, where candidates are selected only by the people in their own party.
We have basically two types of votes: some categories, like best physician, are strictly write-ins. We decided Ahwatukee is so blessed with a strong and talented medical community that we weren’t going to attempt to pare it down: the list would end up looking like those judicial retention ballots that voters occasionally have to get through.
The rest offers some prospective candidates we include to just get you thinking. If you know of others you’d prefer to win, just write them in.
In the long run, going to ahwatukee. com and spending a few minutes making your selections between now and Jan. 31 helps you as much as gives some of your favorite businesses bragging rights for a year.
Even the winners that you didn’t vote for will draw some additional business
from people who want to go where everyone else is a satisfied customer. And that keeps those businesses strong.
Let’s face it, given all the competition that small businesses confront daily between the internet and national chains, they need every boost they can get.
There are a couple of rules I want to set out before you go to ahwatukee.com:
• Submissions will be accepted only through the contest on ahwatukee.com. You can’t call me or someone else on the staff you know and you can’t leave voicemails with a list of your choices.
• AFN reserves the right to qualify all entries for eligibility.
• Limit one vote per category per IP address per day. AFN reserves the right at its sole discretion to disqualify any individual/organization it finds to be acting in violation of the official rules.
• Tampering with the voting process will disqualify those votes.
• You may not assign your right to vote
to anyone else.
• Businesses, organizations and individuals are not permitted to fill out, incentivize or submit ballots on behalf of their employees, customers or anyone else with or without their consent. Those votes will be disqualified.
Winners will be determined by the total number of votes received online during the voting period. First place, two runners-up and honorable mentions will be awarded in March. In the event of a tie, both businesses will receive awards. If you have questions, email bestof@ ahwatukee.com
And if you have some time right now, head over and vote.
And remember, as we say on the website: We hope this will be a great year for voting, participation and an accurate outcome from the people of Ahwatukee. The Ahwatukee Foothills News appreciates readers’ input and our goal to make this the best “Best Of” yet.
Federal appeals court’s freeway logic is illogical
BY DIETMAR HANKE
AFN Guest Writer
Ihave just read the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ Memorandum of Opinion in the case of the Loop202 South Mountain Freeway, which included the note, “This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent.” I can see why.
I can safely say that I never read a grander piece of legal nonsense in my life. There is no logic here. All of these guys need to be fired.
NEPA, the National Environmental Protection Act, was a hard-fought victory. It’s a process. Its logic is hard to refute.
The Ninth Circuit’s modern circular reasoning to circumvent it is without precedent. And, with Arizona’s director of transportation appearing on the front page of the “Hardhat for Highway” lobbyist group’s website, it’s easy
to see how the deck was stacked.
What’s most interesting to me is the court’s cavalier treatment of MAG, the Maricopa Association of Governments. That includes an entity unable to contract or partner with Arizona under United States law.
The Indian Nation is a sovereign. No entity in America can contract (or partner) with it outside of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Period. And the court confirms that on page 11. And yet, a tribal representative representing 65 members can vote with the same force of effect as a mayor for a 2-plus million population.
Second point: “purpose and need.” Wow, what a bastardization of logic. If you bake the need into the purpose, you’re good to go and vice versa.
What is the public need in the case of Loop 202? It can’t be to relieve traffic on I-10. Why would ADOT have released a questionnaire saying it doesn’t
know where everyone is going on I-10 one week after its 2005 announcement that it really does need Loop 202 to relieve traffic on I-10?
It can’t be a general uplift to the regional economy either. Eminent domain would be specifically precluded by AZ Prop 207 based on that need. So, what exactly is the need?
What the Ninth Circuit seems to have avoided is the fact that Loop 202 in Ahwatukee Foothills will be the only freeway in metropolitan Phoenix that will route heavy industrial international traffic (including hazmat traffic) above grade through a residential community.
Woah!!
While the probability of a spill may be “low” (as the court says), the consequences of such can be catastrophic. What would you do if a tanker of chlorine rolled down to your house?
In the end, the Ninth Circuit’s opinion circles back to the “purpose and
need.”
Specifically, under Arizona law, the stated purpose can’t be the specific need articulated by the Arizona Department of Transportation per Prop 207. So private land, association land and city parks should be off the table.
If the stated purpose has been blocked by state law (even one acre), then what? Apparently, it doesn’t matter. Mediocrity and group-think drive the herd of sheeple forward.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals needs to reform itself. Loop 202 is all about contractors and construction companies…and the bond salesmen in New York. Nothing else. “The Money Pipe.”
If this isn’t evidence of the Deep State at work in our backyard, I don’t know what is.
-Dietmar Hanke is an Ahwatukee homeowner who lives within a stone’s throw of the freeway’s path.
Phoenix economy is product of hard work
BY MAYOR GREG STANTON AFN Guest Writer
Great cities must have strong economies – quality jobs with opportunity that can lift everyone. We’ve worked overtime to build that kind of economy in Phoenix, and the latest indicators show that our investments and hard work are paying off.
This year, Phoenix earned a spot in the Top 10 for the nation’s fastest-growing economies, and median wages rose by 7.6 percent – the highest increase of any city in the county.
Not only do Phoenix jobs pay better, but there are more of them too. We’ve cut the unemployment rate in half from where it was six years ago.
How did we get here? Since 2012, we’ve pursued investments to make our economy more innovation-based, we’ve sought to grow trade and exports, we’re working with local companies to help them grow and we’ve put a greater focus on helping residents learn the skills they need to
compete in today’s economy. And though we’re on the right track –we’re just getting started, and what we’ve done in 2017 will pay dividends in the near future.
Phoenix is growing its bioscience resources.
On the Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown, city investments helped open the University of Arizona’s 10-story Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building, which will bring world-class researchers and physicians to our community and help attract top talent.
Up north, on the Arizona Biomedical Corridor near Desert Ridge, a partnership among Phoenix, Arizona State University and Mayo Clinic will help build the 150,000-square-foot Health Solutions Innovation Center that will transform medical education and health care for the entire country.
Efforts to make Phoenix a more global, trade-focused city is paying dividends, too.
Our city opened its second trade office – in Hermosillo – adding to the one
in Mexico City. Already, one Mexican manufacturing firm served through the Hermosillo office has made a $2.2 million investment in a facility near our Sky Harbor International Airport, which will give it convenient access to other global markets.
The news that ASU will relocate its Thunderbird School of Global Management to downtown Phoenix will only help our city grow our international reach.
Our approach also has been to recruit companies that fit the skilled-workforce model, and work with existing local companies to help them grow.
We successfully attracted 32 new companies this past year, and Phoenix became third in the nation for high-tech job growth. The city’s economic development team visited nearly 1,000 business to find out how to best connect employers with local talent, and more than 55 companies indicated plans for expansion within the next year. That’s exciting.
What many of these companies told us is that when they expand, they need
Whatever happened to colorblind America?
BY THOMAS PATTERSON
AFN Guest Writer
The Wall Street Journal told recently of an Illinois school principal who informed his teachers they would “continue on our journey of equity” by splitting into “affinity groups” based on racial identification at their weekly staff meetings.
By this means, faculty members would be able to “explore and affirm aspects of their identity” – presumably in lieu of discussing school business or their students’ academic progress. “Staff that identifies as individuals of color will meet in Room 226.”
Perhaps now would be a good time to ponder the apparent demise of America’s vision to create a colorblind society. Why has “colorblind“ become controversial as a goal when 50 years ago, we cheered Martin Luther King‘s passionate dream of a day when his children could be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin?
But today, racially segregated faculty meetings are no big deal. Americans have grown accustomed to formal, approved racial divisions.
Colleges now feature black student unions and separate graduation ceremonies. Legislatures divide themselves into black and Hispanic caucuses with exclusive membership and separate agendas. Major cities like Los Angeles feature whole sections where whites aren’t welcome.
Elsewhere, the cultural appropriation police are relentless.
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts sponsored “Kimono Wednesdays” in which visitors could try on a replica of the kimono worn by Claude Monet’s wife in the painting “La Japonaise.” The authentic kimonos were manufactured in Japan specifically for the purpose, yet the museum was widely vilified for cultural insensitivity and racism.
Asian-American “activists“ protested with signs reading “Try on the Kimonon. Learn what it’s like to be a racial imperialist today!“
Even when the museum relented and designated the kimonos for viewing only, it was criticized for inviting a “creepy Orientalist gaze.”
An Arab-American author accused Caucasian women who enjoy belly dancing of “white appropriation of Eastern dance.” A Daily Beast writer accused pop
skilled workers to fill those jobs.
To grow that pool of human capital, the city got to work and assisted more than 75,000 job seekers through our three career centers this year alone.
And we launched “sector-specific” strategies in construction, advanced business services and risk management that brought together private partners and job seekers looking to earn new certifications and apprenticeships.
Phoenix now boasts a workforce in which more than 60 percent of workers hold jobs in advanced industries such as business and financial services, precision manufacturing, health and life sciences, and technology. That’s a promising sign for our future.
Rebuilding an economy isn’t easy – and it’s a long road. But the proof that we’ve made the right choices is in our results.
Whether we’re building biomedical research facilities or supporting companies looking to expand business across the borders, Phoenix is committed to creating new economic opportunity everywhere we can.
star Iggy Azalea of committing “cultural crimes“ by imitating black rappers. Novelist Catherynne Valente was criticized because her novel “The Orphan’s Tales“ referenced folklore from several cultures, including Russian even though she isn’t Russian.
Let’s be clear. There are instances of cultures exploiting each other, such as literal theft of artifacts or intellectual property or making references that are mocking and meant to injure.
But this rage over sombrero-wearing crosses the boundaries. It’s looking for trouble where there is none.
Ethnic groups coming into contact with each other have long adopted customs and artifacts that they admire or find interesting. It’s more often a compliment than an insult. Western civilization has contributed clothing, literature and rock music, among other things, to the rest of the world.
Yet, some radicals contend that even making tacos is inherently exploitative.
Let’s see if we can crack the code. If ordinary Americans actually get along pretty well in their daily lives, it is crucial for the political left, now committed to identity politics for the survival of the Democratic Party, to convince us that we
are divided into victims and oppressors.
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California crowed in 2016 that Democrats “won incredible victories by embracing our diversity and rejecting the politics of hate.”
But is it really fair to focus only on the candidates’ identity? Isn’t it possible that the Sikh, the lesbian and the transgenders who won office were simply deemed qualified? On the other hand, did all the Rust Belt voters who voted for Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2016 suddenly turn into racists?
Maybe voters have more than racial identity on their minds when they go to the polls. Maybe, like Dennis Prager says, it really is libel to say that Americans today fundamentally, intentionally oppress minorities.
Maybe we would all be better off if all Americans were to accept and find the best in each other rather than to wage cultural warfare.
America isn’t perfect, never has been, never will be. But the interests of all Americans are more alike than different. We all want jobs, strong families, opportunity for all and a prosperous future together. History suggests that the consequence of separatism in a multicultural state is misery and strife.
Ahwatukee woman helps wine lovers drink in knowledge
BY COLLEEN SPARKS AFN Staff Writer
Raini Keyser helps wine aficionados keep their bottles safe while expanding their knowledge of the fruit of the vine.
“Any problem or issue or help someone might need with their wine collection, we’ve done it,” said Keyser, director of operations and managing partner for Vinum 55, which offers members storage and other services at locations in Chandler, North Phoenix and Scottsdale.
“People here drink wine from all over the world,” she added, saying her staff and the people it serves are “just a bunch of wine geeks” who “love to have wine and have fun. It’s about connecting.”
Less than two years after opening, more than half the wine lockers are being rented by members at the Chandler operation, located on West Queen Creek Road.
Cellar manager Jared Silverman describes it as a “wine club” that gives members a wide range of services.
They can safely store wine in lockers in a cellar where temperatures are kept at 55 degrees with between 60 and 70 percent humidity, which are ideal conditions for preserving the beverage.
The company, named after the Latin word for wine, also gives members access to exclusive opportunities to buy wine, as well as tasting events the public would rarely be able to attend.
In Vinum 55’s Wines of the World program, members can soak up knowledge about wines, including facts about the grapes, geography, soil science, history, climate, culture and wine-tasting techniques in that region.
Vinum 55, which also has locations in the Scottsdale Airpark and north-central Phoenix, also does a complete inventory of members’ wine, making details about their bottles accessible on an app called CellarTracker.
The company will accept wine deliveries for its members so the bottles do not sit outside in the hot sun or other damaging weather conditions when they are not home. As part of its concierge services, members can have wine delivered to their homes or businesses.
Vinum 55 also offers logistical help for those moving so their wines stay secure in temperature-controlled vans.
Of the 200 wine lockers in the Chandler Vinum 55, located next to Press Coffee, 115 were rented as of mid-December, Silverman said. The Chandler operation had 162 members as of that date.
Members may come to Vinum 55 any time it is open to have a glass or bottle of wine with their family members, friends and business colleagues in the tasting rooms. The tasting room may be reserved for private events.
A social membership at Vinum 55 in Chandler costs $65 a month and gives clients a locker/personal wine vault in the cellar to store 12 cases, or 144 bottles, of wine.
Customers who pay for a year’s membership up front get a month for free. The cost for a guest of a member to attend a Wines of the World event is $45, but Vinum55 members can bring a guest for free to the wine tastings.
Storing up to 24 cases of wine costs $125 a month. Vinum 55 can “accommodate a wine collection of any size,” Keyser said. The prices differ at each of the three Vinum 55 businesses and depend on the size of the locker and the location.
For additional dues that Vinum55 did not want to disclose, members can buy
concierge services, including having their wine delivered to them at a home or business. Assisting members with moving outside Arizona is also an additional, concierge service. Members also can rent a rooftop area at Vinum 55 in Chandler for special events if they give 45 to 60 days notice.
“The social aspect is huge, but also, people have less room in their homes but they also love wine,” Keyser said.
She said most members are over 40, but that some are in their 30s. They are upper middle class to affluent and many form friendships through Vinum 55. Some are just learning about wine while others are already knowledgeable.
Usually, about 40 people gather for the wine tastings and 25 to 30 folks attend the Wines of the World gatherings. Several events are held every month at Chandler Vinum 55.
Wines from California, Oregon and Washington state are popular among members, Keyser said.
Everyone on staff is highly trained in wine, said Keyser, who is a certified specialist of wine through the Society of Wine Educators. To earn that certification, one must pass a rigorous exam that tests knowledge of wine and mastery of major elements in the worlds of wine production and the science and study of grapes.
Cellar manager Silverman has a level one sommelier degree from the Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas.
That is a certification for which wine and hospitality professionals complete a thorough study of wines and spirits and undergo an intensive review by master sommeliers on their knowledge of wine and spirits, proper wine service as well as deductive tasting.
Staff members involved in the wine tastings and Wines of the World seminars all have at least the level one sommelier degree or an equivalent wine degree.
Silverman creates and teaches the Wines of the World seminars at the three Vinum 55 locations. At each monthly event, students learn about “one of the world’s most important wine regions.”
“We taste, on average, 10 wines per seminar and we focus on the main grape varietals and producers of that particular region,” Silverman said. “Our intent is to provide members with opportunities to learn more about known and lesser-known wine regions and producers across the world. We take people on a journey.”
At the tastings, Silverman said sommeliers “bring in winemakers from all over the world for our members to meet and learn from.” Clients learn how to taste and evaluate wine in the tastings, he said.
Wine lover Mike Finney, 68, has not tried Vinum 55 but likes the concept.
“I think the idea sounds terrific,” Finney said. “We have over the years been members of some wine clubs like the Wall Street Journal’s WSJwine Discovery Club and the New York Times Wine Club, where they make periodic deliveries. It’s always fun. Sometimes we’ll do wine battles.”
While those wine clubs are fun, he said it would be more enjoyable to get together with wine experts to talk face-to-face. Finney created branding for several wineries and tasting rooms in the Verde Valley for the Verde Valley Wine Trail through his company, AZ Communications Group.
“I think the thing I enjoy most about wine is the opportunity to get together with people and share the experience,” he said. “Whether it’s reds or whites, there’s such an abundance of really, really credi-
(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN photographer)
Raini Keyser of Ahwatukee manages and is co-owner of Vinum 55.
ble good wine. Our wine storage is pretty nominal; we abuse our wines and I think having an alternative to be
to do something like with the Vinum experience could be interesting.”
Arizona has other wine storage businesses, but they don’t also sell wine and offer all of the other types of services Vinum 55 does, Keyser said.
The Vault Wine Storage on North 44th Street offers enough wine lockers to hold 8,000 cases of wine, owner Deborah Fortini said. Customers can’t buy wine through The Vault, though, as they can through Vinum 55.
“They (Vinum 55) differ a little from me in that they have more of a bar element to it,” Fortini said. “I have really exclusively focused on wine storage. Most of my clients are entrepreneurs or workaholics.”
Members of the Vault Wine Storage, which opened in 2013, can access their wine in their lockers any time, even when the business is closed. A biometric access security system means members’ fingerprints allow them to get into their lockers.
“It’s very high security. It alerts me on my phone so I know who’s in there,” Fortini said. “Some of them just keep the re-
ally special bottles there so they don’t have to worry about things like power outages or break-ins or family members or guests opening up the wrong bottles.”
Fortini is not sure whether the number of wine storage businesses will expand in the Valley.
“The market is only so deep,” she said. “There’s only so much wine. If you have
too many or they’re too close together, then what happens is you end up with a lot of occupancy in your wine storage facility. The electricity bill goes down as you become more occupied.”
Vinum 55 is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Information: vinum55. com.
(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN photographer
Members of Vinum 55 can safely store wine in lockers in a cellar where temperatures are kept at 55 degrees with between 60 and 70 percent humidity, which are ideal conditions for preserving the beverage.
Cybersecurity experts can update their skills here
BY JESSE STAWNYCZY AND NKIRUKA OMEROYNE Cronkite News
Arizona already faces a shortage of skilled cybersecurity workers. And one local cybersecurity expert said those who do hold these jobs might need to brush up on their skills.
“We have a huge cybersecurity skills gap,” said Brett Scott, who has worked in the IT industry for 30 years. “And most people that are in the cybersecurity industry are so bad at their jobs that if they were in any other job, they would be arrested or indicted for fraud.”
Scott cofounded Arizona Cyber Warfare Range-Metro Phoenix to help close that gap. The public – from employees already working in the field to parents who want to keep their kids safe on the Internet – can come to the 4,500-squarefoot building to try their hand at breaking into computer systems, cracking passwords and experimenting with malware.
The range, housed at Grand Canyon University, opened this fall. It’s the second range operated by the Arizona Cyber Threat Response Alliance, a nonprofit group focused on addressing cyber threats in Arizona. The first range opened in Mesa about a decade ago.
“We are open to the community,” Scott said. “We don’t care if you’re old, young, wealthy or poor.”
The range serves several purposes, in-
cluding introducing the field to potential workers.
The supply of cybersecurity workers is “very low,” and there are about 285,000 positions open in the field, including nearly 7,000 in Arizona, according to Cyberseek.
Cybersecuritymastersdegree.org lists the median salary for analysts in the Phoenix metro area as $76,300 annually, with the most experienced degree holders making up to $180,000 per year.
Nick Flahiff, a volunteer at the range,
said he works as a security analyst. He points out that people don’t necessarily need advanced degrees to enter the field.
“They need people so badly,” he said. “This is a field you don’t need a college degree. You don’t need any certifications. Really, all you need is hands-on experience.”
John Garduno, a sophomore studying cyber security at the university, said he became interested in the field after feeling vulnerable to cyber attacks serving during his time in the Marines. He said
he wants to work at the FBI after graduation.
“To be an agent, you have to have either a cyberdefense degree or criminal justice,” Garduno said.
Garduno said he sees cybersecurity as a financially stable career option, providing job security in the future with a well-paid position and benefits working for the government.
“There’s always new advances, new attacks, so you always have to stay on top of it,” he said. “Obviously, they only want the best.”
The program also can help individuals and companies, Scott said.
Lyn Harry White, a spokeswoman for Arizona Small Business Association, said the new warfare range is good for smaller companies that don’t have the resources to protect themselves from the dangers of hacking.
“Small business can really benefit because our cybersecurity is horrendous,” White said, adding that most small businesses can’t afford to have a full-time cybersecurity expert on staff.
There were more than half a million small businesses in Arizona as of 2015, accounting for nearly a million jobs, according to the association.
“It’s frightening because Arizona is 90 percent small business,” she said. Scott said digital thieves often target small businesses.
Both ranges hold events and offer training sessions open to the public.
Saba’s Western Wear marks 90 years in Chandler
BY COLLEEN SPARKS AFN Staff Writer
Opening a business is a risky endeavor and many small companies fold in a short time, falling victim to tough economic times and customers’ ever-changing demands.
But Saba’s Western Wear in downtown Chandler opened during the Great Depression and survived that and other economic challenges.
The iconic store, which salutes the spirit of the West, is thriving today as it celebrates 90 years in business.
Recently, the Chandler Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with the Downtown Chandler Community Partnership, held a ribbon-cutting at Saba’s Western Wear to mark the milestone.
The store offers boots, jeans, cowboy hats, belts and other apparel and goods traditionally worn or used by cowboys and ranchers.
Echoing tales of cowboys and dancing saloon girls in dusty towns, Saba’s colorful story is one of humble beginnings and consistently getting back in the saddle despite changes in the economy and business environment.
Lebanese immigrant David Saba Sr. opened the store on San Marcos Place in downtown Chandler in 1927.
Initially, it was a department store before he decided to focus exclusively on Western-style merchandise.
The store was moved to its much larger current spot at 67 W. Boston St., after David Saba Sr.’s son, David Jr., and wife Joan bought the building in 1972.
Over the years, Saba’s expanded throughout the Valley, and today, shoppers can find Western merchandise at six other family-owned stores.
Saba’s still sells to old-time ranchers and also is a hit with a new generation of locals and tourists who like to buy boots for dancing or Halloween costumes or take home a taste of Western life to other cities.
Taking over the business in the early 1950s was an exciting challenge that David Jr. remembers fondly.
“That was the greatest experience I ever had, jumping into a retail business I knew nothing about,” he said. “We catered to all the farmers and the ranchers and the people that picked cotton by hand. As Chandler grew and competition became great with shopping centers, we decided to go exclusive Western wear in the ‘70s.
We have done nothing but grow and be prosperous.”
Joan said her family had owned a junior department store in Portland, Oregon, so that gave her and her husband an advantage in knowing how to operate Saba’s. They are a long way from the tough times in the Great Depression, when the late David Sr. made only $375 in sales in August 1931.
In 1954, David Jr. remembers, cotton pickers would come to the store after their payday and spend $1 on work clothes. Chandler had about 5,000 residents back then – a fraction of its population of 255,000 people today.
“He said he never thought he could make it,” David Jr. said of his father. “It
(Photo by Nathan J. Fish/Cronkite News)
The WannaCry ransomware that attacked computer systems around the globe could be just a taste of things to come, say two Arizona cyber experts who worry Americans are not prepared for such an attack.
was a hard struggle to stay in business. He worked hard. He supported seven kids.”
He remembered how his father would buy a lamb for $3 from a local rancher every month to feed his family. Sometimes, David Sr. would trade with the rancher, giving him jeans in exchange for a lamb.
Joan remembered how small Chandler was in 1954.
“The downtown square was Chandler,” she said. “Ray Road was the farthest north that you would even think of going and Pecos Road was the farthest south anything went.”
David Jr. and Joan attribute their store’s longevity to treating customers well and focusing on quality merchandise.
“Our success has been quality merchandise,” David Jr. said. “We give the best service in the world and our merchandise is priced right.”
Western-style boots are a big attraction and take up much of the spacious Saba’s in Chandler. Shoppers can choose from more than 2,500 pairs of boots for men, women and children, including handmade Tony Lama and Lucchese cowboy boots.
Davey Saba, the son of David Jr. and Joan, is the Chandler store’s director, and he described Lucchese boots as like the Rolex watches of the boot world.
Children’s boots are popular for Halloween costumes, Easter and other holidays and come in different colors including pink, red, black and brown. Tourists love to get their hands on cowboy boots and they were especially popular among shoppers during the last Super Bowl in the Valley, Davey added.
Saba’s Chandler store manager Nell Huddleston, who has worked there 15 years, said cowboy boots are also popular among women, who buy them to go two-stepping or do other country-Western dances.
While Western apparel is not as popular as it used to be, it’s still in demand at Saba’s.
“We still have the older generation that wants their hats and boots,” Huddleston said. “The rodeo people are always looking for Western clothes. There’s some ranchers still.”
Saba’s in Chandler has many other long-time employees, including some who stayed with the company for 20 to 25 years before retiring, David Jr. said. Huddleston described the Sabas as “the greatest people to work with.”
David Jr. has remodeled the store three times since he and Joan bought the building, trying to create a Western at-
the Saba family for its longevity and contributions to the city.
“The Saba family has been committed to Chandler since 1927,” Kimble said. “Many of the Saba family members have served on charity and foundation boards including the Chandler Chamber, and the Chamber Community Foundation, which has graduated over 1,200 people in the Foundation’s Leadership Institute. Joan Saba was instrumental in developing the Foundations Scholarship Program for higher education. We are very fortunate that so many of the Valley’s charitable organizations have felt the generosity of the Saba family.”
Cheryl Tisland, co-owner of Burst of Butterflies Create & Paint Studio on West Boston Street, also tipped her hat to the Sabas.
“I think that it’s great that we have something in downtown Chandler that is a retail establishment because there seems to be a need I think for more retail in downtown Chandler,” Tisland said. “They have cute things for all ages; even if you’re not into Western wear.”
Tisland, who owns her store with her mother, Peggy Peters, serves on the Downtown Chandler Community Partnership Board of Directors, as does Davey Saba. “I’m really excited that he’s so involved in the beautification in downtown Chandler and making it a destination for the masses to come,” Tisland said.
Financial advisor and owner of FORM Prosperity Wealth Advisors in Chandler, Jeremy McClymonds also praised the Sabas for their support of the city.
“As a former chairman of the Board of the Chandler Chamber of Commerce, I have seen firsthand the incredible support the Saba family has given the Chamber and the Chandler community,” McClymonds said.
mosphere. Several pictures of actors who played cowboys in movies, including Tom Selleck and John Wayne hang on the wall in David Jr.’s office.
Belt buckles with the names of film and TV cowboy actors Roy Rogers, Rex Allen and Tex Ritter also adorn his wall.
Cowboy hats and jeans are also big sellers at Saba’s. Straw hats start at $19 and go up to about $80 and felt hats range from $50 to $500.
The well-liked Stetson and Resistol cowboy hats are quick to fly off the shelves into the hands of ranchers and city slickers channeling their cowboy personas.
Levi’s 501, Wrangler’s and Miss Me jeans to complete the Western outfits are also popular at Saba’s. Display cases reveal shiny belt buckles, watches and oth-
er jewelry.
Beyond the wide selection of quality Western wear, the store has a broader appeal, employees and others say.
“I love my customers,” Huddleston said. “I’ll have my regulars. They ask for me. It’s fun working here. We just joke and have fun here.”
A customer came in one time whom she remembered from a store she worked at in Tombstone over 20 years ago.
“He remembered me, too, and he still keeps coming here,” she said.
David Jr. said customers “love the service” Huddleston provides and customers still like to pull him out of his office to “wait on them.”
Terri Kimble, president/CEO of the Chandler Chamber of Commerce, praised
“Joan Saba has served on the Chamber Board and sits on our Community Foundation Board to this day, creating scholarship opportunities for Chandler’s college-bound students.”
Chandler associate broker and publisher of “Real Estate Agent Magazine-Phoenix Edition,” Lisa Schofield also sang Saba’s praises.
“Saba’s is synonymous with what you would expect in Arizona Western wear,” Schofield said, adding:
“As a member of the business community and a homeowner I applaud them for their longevity, especially during the recession. This means they have above-average quality in the products as well as their customer service. You must have both to survive the different markets.”
Photo by Kimberly Carrillo
(From left) Davey Saba, his wife, Lori, Joan Saba and her husband, David Jr., stand in front of the Saba’s Western Wear store in downtown Chandler. Joan and David Jr. are the parents of Davey. Saba’s is marking its 90th anniversary of the Chandler store.
God will help you shine your light if you just let him do it
BY LISA JISA AFN Guest Writer
Iwent to my parents’ church in Madison a few weeks ago to hear my dad narrate an advent program.
My mom and I arrived just before the service was about to begin, and my dad promptly came over to ask if I would be willing to light five candles, one at a time, during the appropriate times. No problem.
When it was time for the first candle, I pushed up the wick from inside the candle lighter, lit it, and walked up to light the candle. Then I snuffed out the flame by sliding the wick back inside the candle lighter. For the second candle, I took the candle lighter, pushed out the wick, walked over to the first candle, lit it from there, and used that flame to light the second candle.
But when it was time to light the third candle, I couldn’t get the wick to come up inside the candle lighter. After a momen-
SUNDAYS
HORIZON SEEKS YOUNG PEOPLE
High school and middle school students meet to worship and do life together.
DETAILS>> 5 p.m. at Horizon Presbyterian Church, 1401 E. Liberty Lane. 480-460-1480 or email joel@horizonchurch.com.
KIDS CAN LEARN JEWISH LIFE
Children can learn and experience Jewish life.
tary panic, I saw my dad motioning for me to just use the Bic lighter that was on the seat next to me, which I did.
After I sat down, one of the ministers brought me a new candle lighter. She quietly explained that after snuffing out the flame, I needed to immediately push the wick back out or else the hot wax would melt to the inside and it would get stuck. After I learned what to do, the last two candles were lit without incident.
This was kind of a silly issue, but it spoke to me deeply. You’ve probably heard the children’s song “This Little Light of Mine.”
The first verse is about letting your light shine. The verses go on to say not to hide your light, but to let it shine. And another verse says not to let Satan blow it out. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
(John 8:12)
In Matthew 5:14,16, Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
If Jesus is the light, and because of my
Chabad Hebrew School focuses on Jewish heritage, culture and holidays.
DETAILS>> 9:30 a.m. to noon, for children ages 5-13 at Pollack Chabad Center for Jewish Life, 875 N. McClintock Drive, Chandler. 480-855-4333, info@ chabadcenter.com, or chabadcenter.com.
SUNDAY CELEBRATION SERVICE
Inspirational messages and music to lift your spirit. A welcoming community committed to living from the heart. Many classes and events offered. We welcome you!
relationship with Him I am also the light, then I ought to be shining. All the time. But I admit I have sometimes hidden that light, and I have allowed a few others to snuff out my wick as well.
One of the ways I have let my light shine over the past 14 years is by consistently writing encouraging articles in the paper. But lately I have gotten stuck in thinking that perhaps if people find out I am in the process of getting divorced, they won’t take me seriously.
I received a very judgmental email from someone who found out I was getting divorced. He twisted Bible verses and was anything but loving and kind. Then I started to wonder if people would think my faith was weak, so therefore I have no right to encourage others in their faith –after all, I have written many times about how nothing is impossible for God, how we need to only have faith the size of a mustard seed, etc.
But God! He does not see me as used up, washed out or unable to shine anymore. He has brought me some wonderfully supportive and caring friends who are not
DETAILS>> 10 a.m. Sundays at Unity of Tempe, 1222 E. Baseline Road, Suite 103, Tempe. Information: 480792-1800, unityoftempe.com.
MONDAYS
CLASS TARGETS THE GRIEVING
Classes for those grieving over death or divorce.
DETAILS>> 6:30 p.m., Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 739 W. Erie St., Chandler. 480-963-4127.
out to judge or condemn me. He still has a purpose for my life, regardless of whether or not there is a ring on my finger.
He has reminded me that His opinion of me is the only one that counts. I am encouraged by verses like these:
“I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills His purpose for me.” (Psalm 57:2)
“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21)
“For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)
Sometimes I might feel more like a tiny night lightbulb than a house shining as brightly as Clark Griswold’s. But I can overcome the darkness of lies, hatred, bitterness and pride with the light of truth, love, hope, grace, peace, encouragement and pure motives.
And so can you. Shine on, friends!
-Wisconsin resident Lisa Jisa can be reached at lisa.jisa@gmail.com
TUESDAYS
SENIORS ENJOY TUESDAYS
The Terrific Tuesdays program is free and includes bagels and coffee and a different speaker or theme each week. Registration not needed.
DETAILS>> 10-11 a.m., Barness Family East Valley Jewish Community Center, 908 N. Alma School Road,
FAITH CALENDAR
Disney comes alive in ‘Follow Your Heart’
BY CATHERINE HATHAWAY GET OUT Contributor
Hundreds of little princesses and princes will gather at Talking Stick Resort Arena this month to see their favorite characters glide across the ice and spin over their heads in “Disney on Ice presents Follow Your Heart.”
The fast-paced ice show is jam-packed with characters, royalty and familiar fishy friends, all performing to beloved Disney soundtracks.
Of course, no Disney on Ice performance would be complete without an appearance by the big cheese himself, Mickey Mouse, and his friends.
“I really love the athleticism that we display,” said Justine Lopez, ensemble skater.
“You get to see all of the princes and princesses do their lifts and their tricks. You get to see Rapunzel and Flynn basically fly
above the audience on a silk fabric act. We are one of the few shows that have that. You hear the audience in awe backstage when it comes to that part of our show.”
“Follow Your Heart” is Lopez’s 10th contract with Feld Entertainment’s Disney on Ice. Lopez loves being able to enchant audiences young and old. The long-time skater and dancer finds magic in the stories and the role models the cast members portray daily.
“We focus on princess empowerment which you get to see with Tiana, Merida, Cinderella, Jasmine, Mulan, Rapunzel and Ariel,” Lopez said “I really love Pocahontas and Moana. I just kind of relate to their free spirit and their independence. Which is exactly what our show has.”
“Follow Your Heart” incorporates not only select Disney princesses, but various Pixar characters from “Inside Out,” “Toy Story” and “Finding Dory.”
“What’s really great is that we’re the
Colorful costumes and characters make “Disney on Ice” a worthwhile attraction for young and old alike.
first ice show to feature ‘Inside Out,’ so we actually have Riley and the emotions there with you, and you get to join in on a
rollercoaster of emotions and go through
Flo’s New Asian Cuisine marks 20 years in Tempe
BY DAVID M. BROWN AFN Contributor
Nearly 30 years ago, Flo Chan left her native Hong Kong and wound up in the Valley because she liked the weather.
Flash forward to 2017, where she and her husband, Dustin Wallace, are marking the 20th anniversary of their restaurants, Flo’s New Asian Cuisine, including one in Tempe. They just don’t work on their menu, either.
“We are working hard to be a positive environment in the East Valley,” Wallace said, noting he and his wife have supported fundraisers for local schools and provide food and support through local charities. Most of Flo’s Tempe 43 employees also live in the East Valley, including hostess Olivia Kurschat and bartender Ashley Martinez, both of Tempe.
With locations also at McDowell Mountain and in Scottsdale, Flo’s offers “a blend of traditional Asian fare with a dash of modern gastronomy — all with the fresh
Flo Chan came to Arizona for the weather and now owns three new Asian cuisine restaurants, including one in Tempe.
flavors of Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Southeast Asian, Japanese and Indian cuisines,” said Wallace, a Nebraska native who studied Mandarin in college and spent two years in China afterward.
“We call the style ‘tradition with a twist,’” he added.
In turn, foodies, gourmands, bloggers and just admirers have thanked Chan and Wallace for years through conversation, e-mail
Flo’s salt-and-pepper chicken wings are cooked to order and are a popular menu item.
and websites for their signature “China-meets-Japan” hot and sour soup, salt and pepper chicken wings, lettuce cups
(Special to the AFN)
See DISNEY on page 40
‘La Mancha’ reimagined with flamenco flair
BY LAURA STODDARD GET OUT Contributor
“Man of La Mancha” is one of the most beloved and inspiring plays – at least in the humble opinion of actor Philip Hernandez, who plays the lead in Arizona Theatre Company’s January production of the play.
“It’s stunningly beautiful,” he said. “It speaks to the way that I personally view the world, and it speaks to our time in a way that I think few other musicals do. It’s a piece that people need to see at this particular point in history because it has something very powerful and simple and beautiful to say.”
This is Hernandez’s third time playing the dual roles of Don Quixote (the “mad” self-proclaimed knight), and Miguel de Cervantes (his creator). However, he said this newly reimagined version of the play – brought to life by Artistic Director David Ivers and Managing Director Billy Russ – is unlike the previous productions.
“In many ways it’s completely different,” Hernandez explained. “The performers –the actors on the stage – are also the musicians, so it’s not like there’s a separate or-
chestra pit. They provide all the music and play multiple instruments. Also, the whole texture of the music is different because it’s scored for a smaller ensemble.”
Another thing that makes this production especially vibrant is the flamenco influence.
“We have some amazingly talented flamenco guitarists and dancers who bring a whole other flavor to this piece,” Hernandez said. “It’s exciting and visceral, and it’s different from any other La Mancha that you’ve seen.”
“Man of La Mancha,” based on Miguel de Cervantes’ epic tome, “Don Quixote de La Mancha,” is a play within a play, portraying the imprisoned Cervantes telling the story of Don Quixote to his fellow inmates while awaiting trial for the Spanish Inquisition. In the 50 years of its run, on and off Broadway, it has been nominated for five Tony Awards.
One of the plays’ highlights is the iconic, stirring song “The Impossible Dream,” something Hernandez feels privileged to perform nightly.
“I think a lot of people have baggage with this song because it’s been performed so many times, and it’s just ‘that song,’” he said.
“So, the opportunity to hear it in con-
text, in this particular piece is great. And what I strive to do in the performance of it is to really let people hear the words, because it comes out of one of the most beautiful scenes in musical theater.”
Hernandez’s love, and almost reverence, for this musical is nearly palpable. He truly believes that this show, as well as the text it’s based upon, can change people for the better.
“When people leave the performance, I want them to see the world in a different way,” he said, “I want them to realize that they’re part of something. There’s more than one way to look at anything, and one way is not less valid than another – it’s just a choice. So, we have options, and we’re all part of a human family, and if they take that away from this piece, then in a small way we’ve changed the world.”
IF YOU GO
What: ”Man of La Mancha” When: Jan. 5-28
Where: Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe St., Phoenix. Tickets: $25-$80 Information: 602-254-7399, arizonatheatre.org
(Special to the AFN)
Philip Hernandez, left, plays the title role in a reimagined “Man of La Mancha” at the Herberger.
DISNEY
from page 38
the different storylines with them,” Lopez said.
Lopez landed her first contract with Disney on Ice when a friend in the company suggested she audition. Lopez was hired, and she’s happy to have the opportunity to travel and perform.
“I think one of my favorite places I’ve been to is Ireland, mainly because of the greenery it offers,” Lopez said. “Another place that I really enjoyed was the Australia and New Zealand area. I would not be able to do it on my own. It’s really exciting to be able to see these types of places and experience it.”
Disney storylines have a special place in the childhood of many, Lopez included. The skater remembers dressing up as all the princesses.
“It’s really funny how I’ll look back and sometimes I’ll come home and sometimes I’ll come across old photographs,” Lopez said.
“My cousin, growing up around her, she had collected every single Disney movie in the book, so I think that kind of instilled a
FLO
from page 38
and the pine nut shrimp.
New dishes that regulars already are chatting about include the Thai-inspired red curry with scallops, with lemongrass coconut cream, galangal and East Coast sea scallops, and Vietnamese rice noodle soup, with beef tenderloin, bean sprouts, and chilies.
“Flo knew from the moment we opened that inspiration doesn’t come out of a can; it comes from traveling, tasting and experiencing a windfall of Asian food,” he added, noting that he also has been inspired by culinary trips nationwide and worldwide. In turn, Flo loves to create new dishes and teach about the culinary traditions of Asia.
little bit in me for a love of Disney. The opportunity to skate with Disney on Ice became a dream.”
Lopez performs in various scenes, including those associated with “Inside Out.” She also introduces the “Finding Dory” section and is a citizen of Arendelle when the audience is transported to Elsa and Anna’s kingdom.
“I do love watching Rapunzel and Flynn,” Lopez admitted, adding:
“I think it’s amazing for me to see it happening because I’m scared of heights, so the fact that they’re doing that above the audience is pretty darn amazing. I also really love our opening number with Riley and the emotions. I feel that it really sets the tone for our show. We kind of just get everybody pumped up.”
And she means everybody.
“Follow Your Heart” features both traditional favorites like Snow White as well as some
aimed at delighting people of all ages.
IF YOU GO
“If you’re unsure about boy audiences, you’ll get to see ‘Toy Story,’” Lopez said. “It’s really a great show. We have so many great storylines and we just kind of take you on a ride. The energy level goes all the way from start to finish.”
Chan was raised in Hong Kong and graduated with honors from high school while learning traditions and recipes of China and other Southeast Asian cuisines from her parents.
About 28 years ago, she left for the United States, following her brother to what was then Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis), where she worked in restaurants to earn money for school. Following graduation, she immigrated to the United States and moved to the Valley because she liked the weather.
The financial climate was sunny, too. After meeting through a Scottsdale friend, she and Wallace opened the first restaurant.
“It was kind of a whim, and we thought we’d try it,” he recalled.
From the start, Chef Lee was there with
What: ”Disney on Ice presents Follow Your Heart”
When: Jan. 18-21
Where: Talking Stick Resort Arena, 201 E. Jefferson St., Phoenix. Tickets: Start at $20.
Information: 800-745-3000, talkingstickresortarena.com, disneyonice.com.
them. Born on the Vietnam/China border, he immigrated to the United States in 1979 as a teenage refugee of the Sino-Vietnamese War.
He brought sharp and wide-ranging insights to the kitchen. “People ask me where I’m from. Vietnam? China? I tell them, ‘I don’t know,’” said Lee, who makes daily quality-control visits to each of the three Flo’s sites.
The three locations serve lunch, dinner and happy hour daily. On Saturday, brunch, from noon to 3 p.m. is specially priced. At all times, expect take-home portions.
Cooked to order, the signature hot and sour soup is influenced by the cuisine of Hubei province in central China.
“Some say that this soup originated in neighboring Sichuan, and the people of various provinces debate it comes from their area,” Dustin said.
In addition to a proprietary spice blend, Flo’s uses two vinegars, a thicker black variety as well as the more common white. The result: a hardier, richer soup than normally served, similar to a New Orleans-style bouillabaisse.
The salt and pepper chicken wings are also cooked to order. “Our chefs lightly bread them then toss the wings with a spicy chili-salt blend,” said Wallace. “This pairs beautifully with the Chinese Tsing Tao Beer, crafted in the Pilsner tradition of the once-German-occupied area.”
All dishes are MSG-free, and customers can request gluten-free, low sodium and heart-healthy.
“Everything is cooked fresh to order, and our servers always ask how spicy they want the food,” he added.
(Special to the AFN)
new characters
Laura Walsh takes National Anthem seriously
BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI GET OUT Editor
Maricopa-based country pop singer Laura Walsh hesitantly leans against a 1966 white Shelby GT 350 prototype in Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale headquarters.
Walsh, who will sing the National Anthem at the event on Wednesday, Jan. 17, and Friday, Jan. 19, approaches her appearances or performances with poise and grace – and the occasional wide smile. She has something on her mind: the importance of the National Anthem, with which she has kicked off sporting events, too.
“I take it really seriously,” Walsh said. “For me, singing the National Anthem is honoring the people who care about the people of our country and sacrifice their lives so we can live out our dreams and live in freedom.”
Walsh is living her dream. Declared the soloist winner of the 2014 Alice Cooper Proof Is in the Pudding talent search, Walsh performed at the subsequent Alice Cooper’s Christmas Pudding concert. She also has shared the stage with Train, The All-American Rejects, Buckcherry and Tonic.
She’s a veteran of the Country Thunder festivals in Arizona and Wisconsin with headliners such as Jason Aldean, Brantley Gilbert, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, The Band Perry, and Luke Bryan.
Walsh released her debut album, “Take Your Time,” featuring her original singles “Hit and Run,” “How Many Days” and the title track, all of which received frequent airplay.
“I really appreciate all the success I’ve had,” she said. “I’m definitely blessed.”
This year will bring new music to Walsh fans. Not wanting to give too much away, she said there’s an original music collection and a covers project.
“I’m really excited about the new songs,” Walsh said. “They reflect more of who I am. As I’ve grown, it’s been evident in my own work and writing style. I touch on deeper parts and different avenues of who I am and who I like.”
Her covers album, which she dubs her “mini-project,” will be released in January.
“Part of being an artist means sometimes covering music that really moves you and speaks to you,” Walsh said. “I have songs that are fun for me to sing or showcase. It shows a different part of my voice that I haven’t been able to showcase.”
Walsh looks to unexpected idols: Lady Gaga and the Manchester, England, rock band The 1975.
“I really look up to Lady Gaga,” she said. “She’s been an inspiration to me. There’s a sense of authenticity. Her music comes from her heart. There’s something special about the Joanne album and her Super Bowl performance.
“I love Super Bowl halftimes. She works really hard. She has an incredible voice. Theatrics aside, she’s a talented lady.”
She uses the word “authentic” in describing The 1975, too.
“Their music is about them. They grow in a way that’s organic and real,” she said. “That’s something I aspire to do: make a true connection with people who listen to my music and those two, in particular, are really inspiring me as of late.”
But her eyes open wide when she talks about Barrett-Jackson.
“I’m not somebody who could build a car,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve always
been an aesthetic car fan. I love looking at car bodies, especially older cars. Singing at Barrett-Jackson, I can run around and explore. I’m interested to see what they have lined up for this year.”
Besides Barrett Jackson, Laura Walsh performs at 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 7, at the Rhythm Room, 1019 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix, with D.L. Marble, Bob Corritore, Pat Roberts and The Heymakers, Whiskey Kiss and others. An $8 donation is suggested.
(Special to the AFN)
Laura Walsh of Maricopa ill be singing the National Anthem twice at the annual Barrett Jackson auto show.
A pumpkin latte for you, a ‘pup-kin’ latte for Fido
BY JAN D’ATRI AFN Contributor
One obsession you may be bringing into the new year is pumpkin-spiced lattes. It’s certainly a tasty treat to wake up to on New Year’s Day, but I’ve added something really special to go with your beverage – a healthful latte for your pooch. Yes, he or she can slurp and savor right along with you.
Because dogs don’t digest dairy very well, my
Homemade Pumpkin Spiced Latte
(Makes two drinks)
Ingredients:
2 cups milk of any kind
2 heaping tablespoons pumpkin puree
2-3 tablespoons honey, maple syrup or sugar
1/2 cup strong hot coffee
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, plus more for serving
Whipped cream for topping
Directions:
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine milk, pumpkin puree and honey, syrup or sugar. Cook until hot but not boiling.
Remove from heat and whisk in coffee, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice. Pour into two mugs.
Spoon whipped cream over top. Sprinkle with a small amount of pumpkin pie spice. Enjoy!
Don’t have pumpkin spice mix?
Here’s how to make it!
Mix Together:
3 tablespoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoon allspice
recipe lists coconut milk – which is OK for dogs.
The American Kennel Club says that coconut milk can strengthen their immune system by fighting off viruses and can also help with bad breath and clearing up skin conditions like hot spots, flea allergies and itchy skin.
Also, the fiber in canned pumpkin has proven to benefit dogs’ digestive tracts. But all things in moderation: small servings are best.
Happy New Year! Here’s to a latte great times for you in 2018!
Pup-kin Latte
Ingredients:
1 can (13.5 fl oz) coconut milk, cream from top separated
1 cup organic pumpkin puree
1 small pumpkin, halved and seeds scooped out for serving
Directions:
Remove cream from top of can of coconut milk. Place in small bowl and whip to thicken.
In a blender, combine coconut milk and pumpkin puree.
Pour into pumpkin bowl. Spoon whipped coconut cream on top.
Let puppy enjoy! (In moderation!)
Sports & Recreation
Pride send a big message with McClintock Shootout win
BY GREG MACAFEE AFN Sports Editor
The Mountain Pointe High School boys basketball team sent another message to the 6A conference last Friday by defeating Mesa High 6059 to capture the McClintock Holiday Shootout Championship.
It came down to the final moments of the game as junior forward Jalen Graham stepped to the line.
He made the first but missed the second. He grabbed his own rebound, passed the ball to senior guard Khalid Price, who found DeAndre Henry under the basket for the clinching layup that gave Mountain Pointe their one-point lead.
“We’ve been in a lot of these tight games, so I think it has really helped us prepare for these kind of situations,” Mountain Pointe coach Duane Eason said after the game. “It says a lot that they were able to stay together and get the W.”
Although the Pride came away with the W, the No. 4-ranked team in 6A trailed for a majority of the game. Zach Hobbs, Xavier Fuller and Mark Hatch paced the No. 7 Jackrabbits in the scoring column and different moments throughout the game.
It started in the first quarter when Hatch scored 11 of his teams 19 firstquarter points. After that, he only scored five points the rest of the game.
“We were just trying to wear him out,” Eason said. “I saw him four times last year when I was coaching for Phoenix College and I already knew how tough he was. He is the type of kid who’s not gonna lose.”
Hatch battled the intense Mountain Pointe full-court press all night long, often having to spring up the sideline to avoid being trapped in the back court.
As the game went on, the Jackrabbits started to find a mixture of open threepoint shots from the corners and easy looks at the basket. But, the Pride avoided any major damage and stay close with the Jackrabbits.
As time ticked off the clock, the two teams traded long possessions, as both
From there, the two teams traded baskets down the stretch until Henry gave the Pride the final lead of the ball game.
Price and Amarion Cash were named to the McClintock Holiday Shoot AllTournament team as both were a staple in the defensive pressure for the Pride.
teams held the ball for an extended period of time before converting.
With just under five minutes left in the fourth, Hatch held the ball for close to 40 seconds before finding Hobbs for three of his team-high 19 points.
Mountain Pointe answered right back with a long hold and conversion to take a one-point lead with just under four minutes remaining.
They also have been key components in Mountain Pointe’s offense all season long. Price scored 14 against Mesa while Cash turned in a 13-point performance in the championship game. Mountain Pointe has quickly risen through the ranks to establish itself as one of the best basketball teams in the state.
Through the early stages of the season, it has lost only once, a one-point loss to the No. 1 Brophy Prep Broncos. The team also has scored signature wins over
No. 2 Pinnacle and a two-point overtime win over No. 5 Desert Vista.
With about half the season remaining, Eason believes that as time goes on his team will only get stronger down the stretch.
“They are doing a good job and they are coming along well,” Eason said of his team’s performance. “I think we’re definitely gonna be stronger in the back stretch.”
The Pride will take on 6A Central region opponent Highland on Friday, Jan. 5.
Do you have a human-interest or feature story idea? Contact Sports Editor Greg Macafee at gmacafee@timespublications. com. or by phone at 585-610-2344. Follow Greg on Twitter @greg_macafee.
(Greg Macafee/AFN Sport Editor) Pride senior guard Khalid Price makes a full-court run during the McClintock Shootout.
(Greg Macafee/AFN Sports Editor)
Jonah LaBranche tries to protect the ball during Mountain Pointe’s game with Mesa High in the McClintock Shooutout.
Thunder girls soccer team a strong contender
BY GREG MACAFEE AFN Sports Editor
Even after facing an early 1-0 deficit against Red Mountain, the Desert Vista High School girls soccer team came from behind to win its seventh game of the season two weeks ago.
Coming from behind isn’t something the Thunder have had to face this year. They have allowed only eight goals all season long and three of them came in a 3-0 loss to Perry High.
But Megan Brouse, Emily Carney, Sophia Budge and Hannah Minch all found the back of the net and senior goalkeeper Amanda Green made five saves to contribute to the 4-2 comefrom-behind victory against Red Mountain.
“We’ve tried a couple different schemes to get everyone on the team some playing time and figure out what groups click,” coach Marvin Hypolite said. “I think we did really really well and I think things have gone fairly well.”
Last season, the Thunder made a trip to the 6A state championships after finishing the regular season with a record of 22-4-1. They fell 2-0 to Xavier Prep in the state championship.
Of that state championship team, the Thunder lost two leading scorers in Paige Maling and Caroline Bych, who combined for 24 goals and 14 assists.
Even with the loss of the two seniors, Hypolite believes that last year’s state championship run gave his team experience for this season.
“We do have a good group of seniors who have been there,” Hypolite said. “So, I think even though we lost a lot, we also gained a lot. We have a good mixture of both experience and youth.”
So far through this season, that experience has shown for the Thunder as 11 different players have found the back of the net and junior Megan Brouse has a team-high four goals.
They scored a season-high 13 goals against Westview High and scored another nine against Gilbert High during the Coyote Classic at Campo Verde High School.
While the offense has tallied a total of 35 goals through the early part of the season, the Thunder defense has been just as good.
Senior goalie Amanda Green has
returned from last year’s state championship run and the defense has taken shape around her.
“Defense is really an aspect that is highly important that we preach even to our forwards, and that’s where it starts,” Hypolite said. “We take pride in that stability and keeping that goals against at zero. We take pride in that.”
The Thunder excelled in the first half of the 2017 season and over the holiday break had a great opportunity to figure out just how good they are by competing in the Arizona Showcase at the Reach 11 Sports Complex in northern Phoenix.
With 30 girls teams and 32 boys teams playing at the complex over a four-day stretch, the Thunder in their first game defeated Notre Dame Prep 1-0 before tying Millennium and falling to Villa Park 3-0 in the final pool play game.
Although the Thunder have excelled through the first part of the season,
Hypolite believes the team still has room for improvement.
The team has found its rotations and schemes, now just is looking to create a little bit of momentum.
“I am really looking forward to this year as well. Firstly, it’s an opportunity for us to see where we are at and I want to start building that momentum and start seeing that ability,” Hypolite said.
Claire Caviolo hustles after the ball during Desert Vista’s game with Red Mountain.
(Photos by Greg Macafee/AFN Sports Editor) Megan Brouse tries to beat out an opponent from Red Mountain.
Nicole Nedza lines up a kick as Lauren Loughran looks on.
Phoenix Suns use entertainment to engage fans
BY KEVIN PALACIOS Cronkite News
Sporting events go beyond the box score.
With increased in-home viewing options and rising ticket prices, sports franchises know they must complement competition on the playing field with cutting edge in-house entertainment.
For an older generation, the constant music and in-house emcee might be a bit much. But for most others, a digitalized lifestyle equates to a shorter attention span and the need for constant entertainment.
The Phoenix Suns, who are celebrating their 50th anniversary in the NBA, say they are committed to providing fans with a variety of options.
“We almost feel like our show is as big as the team on the court,” said Sumer Meyer, Suns Dancers manager. “We’re just waiting for the next break.”
Dancers are just one part of the equation. Throw are an in-house DJ, an acrobatic Gorilla mascot, an entertainment-centric video board and more, and the amusement goes from tip-
off to final buzzer at Talking Stick Resort Arena.
Fans needs to be entertained. Sixtythree percent check sports social media sites while attending a game, according to a recent study by Game Changer.
Teams are responding by keeping the action going. In 2013, Sacramento Kings fans smashed the Guinness World Record for “loudest crowd roar” at 126 decibels.
Despite their record, the Suns believe they still have reasons for fans to cheer the team, led by Devin Booker and a young core mixed with veterans, who help guide the group as it develops on the court.
At Talking Stick Resort Arena on game nights, fans say it’s hard not to cheer on three-pointers by Booker or rim-ripping dunks by Tyson Chandler.
The excitement fans feel is fueled not only by the players but by the environment that is created by the Gorilla, Suns Dancers, superfan Mr. ORNG, DJ Dean Michaels and in-game host Weezy.
“We’ve put a lot of effort, especially this year, into our in-game entertainment,” said Michaels, the official DJ of the Suns and Mercury. “We’ve focused a lot on the Suns
Dancers, and they’re stepping up a lot.”
The team has a collective group of dancers, from the Suns Dancers to Solar Squad to even Golden Grannies, that fuel the energy level in the arena.
“We’re watching the game, we’re supporting the players but we’re focused on being prepared for the next timeout,” Meyer said. “We want our breaks to be as entertaining as the basketball game
being played on the court.”
Their contributions might appeal to those solely there for the in-game, offcourt experience.
“I know as a little girl when I’d come to game, I really didn’t care about the basketball. I wanted to see the dancers and we see that same thing happen now,”
(Photo courtesy Phoenix Suns)
Weezy, the in-game host for the Phoenix Suns and the coach for the Solar Squad, is a key player for the team’s in-game entertainment. The Suns have made keeping fans attention a priority.
Meyer said. “There are just a lot of kids that will see Solar Squad or Suns Dancers and they can relate to that.”
Dean said, “We try to add a lot of visual elements as well as musical elements. We have the dancers come out or the hiphop squad come out and they dance along or the Gorilla might come out.”
The music played in the arena is one way to energize the crowd, but it is also to fuel players at all the stages of the competition.
Before every game, Michaels is posted at half court at his DJ booth playing music as players come out to tune up, selecting songs that he knows players like.
“We do a lot of music toward the players especially when they’re warming up to get them psyched up for the game and during the game,” he said.
One the teams tip off, Michaels provides music during breaks and as the Suns Dancers perform.
“I think (music) motivates the crowd. It can shift the crowd,” he said. “I think it brings them in the game and sets a mood for where we want to go throughout the game.”
With a wide variety of fans at the arena for a Suns game, the in-game experience varies.
“For some people, they want to be blown out of their seats with the music and really blare and be at a concert venue, and others want to focus on the game and hear their neighbor to their left or right,” said Brett Samet, game presentation manager.
The Suns also have brought musical performers like Futuristic and Montell Jordan to participate in the festivities this season.
“You have those individuals that aren’t there for the basketball game itself but the craziness of the atmosphere, the videos that we play, the music that’s played, just hanging out with their friends,” Samet said.
This “craziness” is enhanced during games with the Suns’ version of SkeeBall or the T-shirt toss. The Suns try to be sensitive to seat location.
“We try to do it upstairs and downstairs so if you’re sitting upstairs it doesn’t mean you aren’t going to get the same amount of entertainment as you’re if you’re downstairs,” Meyer said.
As technology has enhanced the elements of dance and music to provide the best in-game experience, the Suns also have brought in a new app that helps keep fans engaged through their devices.
The team has partnered this season with DROPIT, which provides fans
a way to participate in a live auction during halftime or a game break. The app appears on the big screen and allows those in attendance to win prizes for a fraction of the cost.
“DROPIT is a free app that runs live 60-second drop auctions that fans bid on from their seats,” said Peter Howell, CEO and founder. “The first fan to swipe up wins, making it like a game of ‘chicken,’ where fans push their anticipation and excitement to the limit. The longer they wait, the lower the price drops – but they could miss out if they wait too long.”
One of the packages that the Suns and DROPIT offered was a pair of courtside tickets and a VIP tour of the locker room. This package was valued at $3,000 and bought for $76 by a fan who resisted the urge to swipe up right away. Another auction featured a Honda CRF125F dirt bike that was valued at $4,000 and went to a fan for $618.
“Each DROPIT auction combines the pace of a video game, the intimacy of a mobile screen with the scale of a venue’s large format digital board, and the excitement of a live event,” Howell said. “It’s a thrilling and memorable way to bring fans and brands together under one roof.”
DROPIT and the Suns will feature several auctions during select games to
allow fans to win unique experiences and items in celebration of the 50th anniversary. Throughout the season, the Suns will host five “Decade Nights” celebrating the different eras in Suns history.
As part of the event, the Suns will feature a concession item inspired by the era being celebrated and it will be located all around Talking Stick Resort Arena.
Food options have become a priority for organizations in marketing their teams. Some of the new concession items include Big Smack, Arizona Cheesesteak, BBQ Nachos, Kahlua Pork Sliders and What the Cluck?
The Big Smack is a double stack of grilled beer brat patties with beer cheese sauce, caramelized onions and cider slaw served on butter toasted pretzel bun.
The What the Cluck? is a sandwich with fried chicken, maple-Dijon slaw and bread-and-butter pickles on a Parker House roll.
The Suns say they are committed to performing well not only on the court but also off the court as in-game entertainers.
“We understand the value that the entertainment brings here to the games so we’re putting a lot more effort and focus into the entertainment to really give these fans the real ultimate experience,” Michaels said.
Boxing fuels growth of women-only gyms
BY TIM JOHNS Cronkite News
Melissa de la Rosa has been boxing at Jabz Boxing in Arcadia for just under a year. The women-only facility fulfills more than de la Rosa’s desire to amp up her cardio and relieve stress.
“I’m an Orthodox Jew, and I can’t work out uncovered around men,” she said. “So, I come here because I can uncover because it’s all only women.”
Over the past several years, womenonly fitness facilities have exploded in popularity. More women now have gym memberships than men, and womenonly fitness is the fastest-growing sector of the fitness industry overall, according to my30minutehit.com.
Women-only boxing gyms have played a role in that growth. Boxing offers an intensive, full-body workout made popular by celebrities such as Gigi Hadid and Khloe Kardashian.
Scottsdale-based Jabz, a women-only
boxing gym franchise, has 11 facilities in the Phoenix area with eight more slated to open in the coming months.
“It is a really good workout – 45 minutes,” De la Rosa said. “It’s solid running, jumping, hitting, punching. You relieve stress. You relieve everything. You just come in, and you let loose.”
Josette Rosene, the owner of Jabz Arcadia, said there are many reasons women want to work out with just other women.
“There’s no intimidation factor,” she said. “They come in. They know somebody’s not gawking at them or somebody’s not looking at them like … they’re doing it wrong.”
Rosene said women feel more comfortable and don’t feel as intimidated as they might at other kinds of gyms. For de la Rosa, the gym makes her want to keep coming back.
“I’m going to be here for a while. I’m going to be here until, I don’t know, until I can’t come here anymore,” she said. “I love this.”
If there’s anything you need, call me. That’s why I’m proud to be here to help life go right ™ – and to support Ahwatukee.
Lynn Hennessy Ins Agcy Inc
(Photo by Tim Johns/Cronkite News)
Over the past several years, women-only fitness facilities have exploded in popularity. Jabz Boxing in the Arcardia neighborhood of Phoenix is part of a franchise.
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