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MAIN STREET AHWATUKEE
Latest news from the chamber; p18
Celebrating 38 years of service
Vol. 40, No. 25
Ahwatukee Foothills News twitter.com/AhwatukeeFN
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COVER STORY
CASA
Ahwatukee resident vows to advocate for children without a voice
COMMUNITY:
Robotics
Two local teams advance in competition; p6
By Kendra Penningroth AFN INTERN
one excited.” Posta is just as excited. After all, he gets paid to play. A caregiver for the developmentally disabled, Posta is parlaying his passion for colors, crafts and model-making into a full-time position. The Desert Vista High School graduate beat out more than 100 other contestants in January for the battle in the mall’s food court. “It was a three-round building contest,” he said. “It was really intense, but a lot of fun. A lot of the best models from that competition
Child abuse is an unfathomable concept for many of us, but for too many children in the Valley — it’s reality. In Arizona alone, there are 18,000 children living in some form of “out-of-home care.” Children who have been removed from their guardians, whether they have been deemed unfit, or the children exhibit symptoms of neglect or harm. Some of these children have never felt as if they matter, but thanks to the CASA program of Arizona (Court Assigned Special Advocates for Children), some of those tiny voices can be heard. CASA volunteers (also known as CASAs) are of a special breed. They are people willing to take on the responsibility of advocating for and building a relationship with a child, or children, who have seen and experienced horrors many of us are fortunate to not have. On April 9, the Arizona Supreme Court swore in new CASAs, including Ahwatukee Foothills resident Danica Lautzenheiser. Lautzenheiser is passionate about becoming a CASA. She beams with excitement when asked how she feels about it, but her situ-
>> See LEGOLAND on page 17
>> See CASA on page 17
GETOUT:
Jesse Clegg
Performs in Valley this week; p27
Ahwatukee resident Alec Posta is the master model builder for the new LEGOLAND Discovery Center at Arizona Mills. [Tim Sealy/Special to the Tribune]
Brick by Brick
Ahwatukee man heads up the LEGOLAND Discovery Center By Christina FuocoKarasinski AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS
SPORTS:
Signing day
Area athletes commit to colleges; p38 Neighborhood p3 Calendar p5 Community p6 Opinion p12
Faith p20 GetOut p27 Sports/Rec p38 Classified p41
Alec Posta is good at keeping secrets. As the master model builder for the LEGOLAND Discovery Center at Arizona Mills, the Ahwatukee Foothills resident is keeping mum on the Valley hotspots represented at the attraction’s Miniland, a collection of landmarks made out of LEGO. He would say, however, that University of Phoenix Stadium will be included. All will be revealed when the 40,000-square-
foot Discovery Center opens to the public at 10 a.m. Friday, April 22, primarily for children ages 2 to 10. “That’s one of the bigger ones,” he said coyly about the Cardinals’ home turf. “The Miniland is really cool. Everyone’s so excited about it. Even in the mall people are asking me questions about it. I have my LEGOLAND Discovery Center lanyard on and they want to know what’s inside. It’s tough to keep it a secret because I want to go and tell everyone about everything that’s inside. I just give them a vague outline to get every-
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