October 2015
Stephanie Drew, Sydney Drew and Rachel McCahan sip on their smoothies at the Las Sendas Food Truck Friday. See page 24 for more photos.
Las Sendas kids making a difference
Education and nature combine at Desert Arroyo Park
By Tracy House Las Sendas Elementary School recently joined efforts with Kids Breaking Borders for Education to raise money to purchase back-to-school supplies for students in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. Siblings Sophia and Erick Deyden founded KBBE last summer as a way to give back to the community. Sophia is a senior at Xavier College Preparatory Academy and Erick is a junior at Brophy College Preparatory. Both mentioned that education has had a great impact on their lives. Giving back to children who may not be able to afford their own school supplies was the reason for forming KBBE. While visiting Sonora, Mexico, Sophia said they saw an extreme need for
By Elizabeth Parra Valenzuela With the opening of Desert Arroyo Park, Mesa residents can enjoy technology, education and nature in the city’s first environmental education park to offer free Wi-Fi. The park, at 9320 E. McKellips Road, sits on 58 acres. Its five educational nodes are each outfitted with ramadas and picnic areas. The park also offers walking paths and trails for hikers and non-motorized bikers, including a quarter-mile Botanical Walk with plant interpretative signs, a half-mile paved Discovery Loop connecting the educational nodes and a three-quarter mile Explorer’s path. “A group of students from Zaharis Elementary School came together and
the children. “Those kids had nothing, and we had so much, and it Erick Deyden, Annie was so many Brown and Sophia Deylittle things den at Las Sendas Elementary School. Brown, a we took for first grade teacher at Las granted, like Sendas, presented Kids buying school Breaking Borders for Eda project started supplies,” she ucation, last year by the Deydens, said. “We with a check for $438.75 thought, ‘How for school supplies for imcan we moti- poverished students. vate these kids to try in school, excel in school, and actually stay in school?’ We thought we would help the kids.” With the aid of friends, family and
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helped us with the design principles. We talked about civics and how projects come together,” Mesa Parks, Recreation and Commercial Facilities Director Marc Heirshberg said. “We want them to use it as an educational tool as well as an opportunity to play and learn about the Arizona wildlife and their role in helping protect the environment.” More than 115 trees and 150 saguaros, barrel cactus and ocotillos were saved by the park’s opening, Heirshberg added. One of the reasons Zaharis Elementary School staff and students played a large role in the creation of this park was the school’s proximity. Principal ...continues on page 8
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