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Camino Campana honors cherished steward
BY DAVID M. BROWN Progress Contributor
For more than a quarter century, “Sam” Kathryn Campana has helped guide Scottsdale’s nurturing of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, and today, Oct. 31, City Council and the McDowell Sonoran Preserve Commission will thank her by naming its newest accessible trail after her.
The 10 a.m. dedication of “Camino Campana” will include remarks by Preserve champions such as Joan Fudala, Scottsdale community historian and “lifetime member of the Sam Campana Fan Club.”
Preserve stewards, Audubon Southwest citizen scientists and craftspeople from the Cattle Track Arts Compound will lead hikes on the one-mile trail. In addition, the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy, a private volunteer group dedicated to stewarding the preserve, will have Halloween educational exhibits and a scavenger hunt for the children.
Tice Supplee, Audubon Southwest director of bird conservation, will lead a bird walk and the Southwest Wildlife Conservation will showcase native desert animals, culminating in a hawk release by Liberty Wildlife.
“I’m honored that the city chose to name this beautiful desert trail with our family name and honor our multicultural heritage in Scottsdale, too,” said Campana, a City Council member 1986–1994 and the city’s first female mayor 1996–2000.
On Oct. 3, 1994, Council dedicated 4.5 square miles of city-owned land as “Day One” of today’s 30,580-acre preserve – comprising about one-third of Scottsdale’s land area. With 225-plus miles of trails through varying Sonoran Desert topography, the venue is the largest municipal preserve in the country and attracts 1.2 million-
Former Scottsdale Mayor “Sam” Kathryn Campana and her family will be celebrating today’s dedication of a McDowell Sonoran trail named after her. (Special to the Progress)
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Pearce Foundation bridges hospital-family disconnect
BY ALEX GALLAGHER
Progress Staff Writer
For Meghan Alfonso, helping people is second nature.
As a former marketing employee for the St. Joseph’s Foundation and the Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation who frequently helped put on events, she has a passion for raising awareness of – and funds for – sick children.
The favorite part of her previous job was connecting with families of patients and helping them figure out what the diagnosis was and what to prepare for. From there she would do whatever she could to raise money and ease their struggles.
However, Alfonso always wanted to do more.
As a result, she decided to start her own non-profit organization and dedicate it to her great grandfather Zebulon Pearce, who was best known for being the founder of Pearce Beverage Co. and the first distributor of Coors beer in Arizona.
“I started The Pearce Family Foundation because I saw there was a disconnect between the hospital and the home,” Alfonso said. “From what I understood, patients constantly forgot about their bills while spending time in the hospital.”
Nearly eight years after starting the foundation, Alfonso has distributed between $250,000 to $275,000 among about 400 families with children suffering from
plus annual visitors.
Preserve Director Scott Hamilton oversaw the development of Camino Campana.
“It’s not easy to surprise me, but I was really astonished when Carla and Joan told me that my name might be added to the stellar list of six other Preserve advocates already so honored,” Campana said.
Campana moved to Scottsdale from a small Idaho farming community in 1969. An honors graduate of Scottsdale Community College, she is the mother of three adult children, Scottsdale residents Cassidy and Katie, and Richie, who lives with his family in Ireland.
“They knew it was important to me that it be an accessible trail for people with disabilities. Knowing the Preserve will be open to all of our community and visitors is exciting,” said Campana, a founding member and officer of the Scottsdale Foundation for the Handicapped (now STARs).
She asked if the signage could be bilingual, English and Spanish. She had implemented this feature when she was founding executive director of Audubon Arizona and vice president of the National Audubon Society, helping to make the Nina Mason Pulliam Rio Salado Audubon Center in Phoenix possible.
Dan Gruber, a long-time supporter of the Preserve, noted that Campana “has long supported multi-lingual signage, which we’ll handle on her trail through QR codes, and access to the Preserve for people who don’t have the time, desire or ability to hike, bike or ride. “Sam really believes it’s the ‘people’s preserve,’” he said. “She’s an official steward, too; she’s gone through the required training and worked on some projects, including the trail named after her.”
Campana also asked the founder of Cattle Track Arts Compound, Janie Ellis, and its artists and craftspeople to work on the design and graphics. In the 1930s, Janie’s father, George, purchased land in what was then the county; the Compound has since welcomed many artists and architects.
Cattle Track artists Carlos Mandelaveitia and Kim Johnson devoted most of the time on the project, explained Ellis, who has known Campana for decades.
“Working in tandem with a committed group of Conservancy stewards who had researched the area, they came up with an ingenious integrated plan for interpretation of the ‘Unseen Sonoran Desert’ theme of the trail,” recalled Campana. “My commitment to Preserve education will continue now through Camino Campana.” For Justin Owen, chief executive officer of the Conservancy, Campana has been a mentor and influence.
“She has a great outlook on life, she always takes this high-road and doesn’t compromise her principals but acts kindly and justly toward those who disagree with her, and she has a contagious sense of humor and I have laughed some of my hardest with her,” he said.
“Sam was born an environmentalist, and I know how much the McDowell Sonoran Preserve means to her and her family,” explained Fudala.
Christine Kovach, who was vice chair of the Preserve Commission and a past board chair for the Conservancy, hailed Campana as well.
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“As mayor, she had a lot of ‘firsts’ that really advanced the Preserve effort,” Kovach said. “Sam was thought of as the ‘arts mayor,’ and she did a lot to advance the arts in Scottsdale and the Valley, but I also thought of her as our ‘Preserve champion’ because she fought hard for it and made sure she did everything in her power to make it a reality.” “She saw the mountains and desert as a natural form of ‘art’ and an important piece of Scottsdale’s character. I always admired her for that. She wasn’t afraid of being bold,” she added.
Campana said, “I have hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon more than 50 times and visited many of our national parks and monuments, but by far I have spent the most time in our majestic McDowell Sonoran Preserve and I am grateful to have been part of its creation – for our families and those who follow us.”
For more information, see mcdowellsonoran.org; Cattletrack.org; Az.audubon.org; Libertywildlife.org; Southwestwildlife.org; scottsdaleaz. gov/preserve/preserve-history; and Starsaz.org.
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chronic or life-threatening illness.
Another unique cause within the Pearce Family Foundation is it is “Angel Pups Around Us” initiative, which grants $1,500 to families to use towards the purchase of a service dog.
“A year and a half after we started the foundation, we had a lady reach out to us and ask if we would help pay for a service dog for her son that has autism,” Alfonso said.
After conversing with the organization, the family was working with, Arizona Goldens, she discovered that the dog came at a hefty price.
Her next move was to go to the Pearce Family Foundation board and suggest a new initiative where the nonprofit would cover 25 percent of the dog’s cost.
“We do that so the family and anyone who is involved in the process is committed to this new edition to their family,” Alfonso said.
The Pearce Family Foundation generally hosts two to three large events a year and is best known for its Angel Car Rally and Clays for a Cause.
The Clays for a Cause is a skeet-shooting competition Saturday, Nov. 6. Details are at pearcefamilyfoundation.com.
“Clays is not our most glamorous event but people enjoy doing it and we almost raised $50,000 last year,” Alfonso said with a laugh.
Alfonso admitted that the pandemic scared her.
“The pandemic happened so fast but my staff knew I would take care of them no matter what,” Alfonso said. “We were more scared of not knowing what was going to happen.”
“When the world shut down, we had four events that we were supposed to be a part of,” she said.
Even though it seemed like the world shut down, she knew that bills would not stop rolling in for her benefactors and she knew she had to find a way to keep those families afloat.
She decided to create virtual events like dance classes and drive-in movies, which saw success. She also received grants to offset some of the foundation’s losses.
As people were gradually allowed to interact in public observing safety protocols, Alfonso found a way for her to host her foundation’s biggest events. The Angel Run and Clays for a Cause both happened in the fall of 2020, with Clays for a Cause being more socially distanced.
Alfonso said she also got a better sense of what the families of some of sick children endure, regardless of a pandemic.
“It made me more aware of when I’m around children in those situations,” she said. “We tend to not be aware of these things because we’re lucky to not be sick all the time. It allowed me to put myself in these kid’s shoes.”
Alfonso also believes the pandemic has led many people to see a need to support public health and recognize the reality of those who suffer from chronic or life-threatening illness.
“I think that the pandemic affected so many people in different ways that I think people are now more sensitive to these families now,” she said. “I think that we’re very blessed to have such great supporters and people who have believed in us for so long.”
“I think that our families are grateful that there are people out there who want to help them,” she said. “The families often say that if they didn’t find us, they don’t know what their life would be like.”
For Alfonso, it is purely all about reminding families that there are angels out there willing to help them.
“I believe that what you give out, you will get back,” she said. “I just want to show these families that there are people who will care.”
