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Virus quashes Old Times Reunion plans

BY KRISTINE CANNON Progress Staff Writer

To celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in 1961, Lester and Labeula Steiner Mowry hosted a party at their house – but this wasn’t your average anniversary party.

The party only marked the beginning of a nearly 60-year annual event they then called the Scottsdale Old Times Reunion.

“They started it because of they wanted a way to get together for some other reasons besides funerals,” said Eleanor Brierly, Labeula’s daughter and treasurer of the Scottsdale Historical Society.

But on what would have been the reunion’s 59th year, the event was canceled due to restrictions on gatherings of more than 10 people.

“And for us to have to wait a whole ‘nother year, we could lose two or three more [attendees],” Brierly said.

Labeula and her sister, Thelma Steiner Holveck, held the annual event �irst at Labuela’s home. They invited residents, former residents, people who attended Scottsdale schools, teachers, and friends.

The event eventually outgrew the Mowry house after the �irst �ive years, averaging anywhere from 80 to 100 attendees, and was relocated to the Eldorado Park Community Center.

Labuela and Holveck called the event “Old Timers” because attendees had to have lived in Scottsdale since before 1930.

“But over the years, of course, that has been relaxed and relaxed and relaxed because people die,” she added.

And that’s why they needed to host this year’s event: They’re afraid of losing even more attendees.

“We’re losing them every year,” Brierly said. “It went from the original founders and attendees to the next generation now. That third generation has not stepped forward, so every year it’s

This photo was taken by Lois McFarland at the Scottsdale High School Old Timers Reunion on March 28, 1987. From left, Bill Cavalliere (Class of 1931), Dorothy Cavalliere Roberts (Class of 1933), and Fred “Yam” Cavalliere (Class of 1940). (Scottsdale Public Library)

Eleanor Mowry Brierly gets help from her sisters to continue hosting the Scottsdale Old Timers Reunion. This year’s reunion, however, was canceled. (Scottsdale Public Library)

Over the past 20 years, she’s helped organize the event alongside her sisters JoAnn Mowry Handley, Diana Mowry Green, and Rebecca Mowry.

The event was supposed to take place last Sunday, but on March 10, they were noti�ied that the community center would close.

The attendees’ response “was all pretty much the same, which was ‘darn,’” Brierly said. “People started sending donations because they know we have to pay for the room, so we had to send the donations back.”

Brierly said they look forward to touching base with people they don’t see on a regular basis.

“These are people whose parents were in the original group; and a number of families have moved up into the Verde Valley area, and so we don’t see them at all,” she said, adding, “It’s touching base, �inding out how many people have great grandkids and whose health is gone — that kind of thing.”

Brierly credits the longevity of the annual event to the closeness of the families and the bonds many of the attendees made growing up in Scottsdale together.

“This was a tiny county,” she said. “These people all had the Little Red Schoolhouse. They went to Scottsdale High School (SHS) when it opened. They all had this closeness. We all came from that era. Thirties, ‘20s, ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s — that strong bond is there.”

Brierly was among the 46 who graduated from SHS in 1953. Her father, Lester, was in the �irst SHS graduating class of 1923.

Brierly’s children, on the other hand, attended Coronado High School.

“They don’t have high school friends,” she said. “I still have a group of high school friends. We’re very close, closer than sisters in some cases.”

Brierly isn’t sure how much longer they’ll be able to keep up the annual event.

“It’s now a matter of, how much energy do we have? How much longer can we do this? As much as our hearts want to do it forever and ever, that’s not reality,” she said.

While the future of the event might be unclear, that doesn’t mean they won’t host the reunion next year.

“I really felt bad that we had to cancel as we all are getting older and might not be able to go next year. I am 88. Next year, I will be 89,” Handley said. “I will be helping to put the reunion on next year come heck or high water.”

“It’s not that any of us are saying we want to go back to that age. It’s just that we don’t want to forget it. It’s part of who makes us, what makes us strong, what makes us the people that we are. It’s part of what we want to impart to our kids, which is how precious life is in the moment you’re living it because that’s your history in 20 years,” Brierly said.

20 SCOTTSDALE PROGRESS | WWW.SCOTTSDALE.ORG | APRIL 12, 2020 NEIGHBORS Chinese Americans here help in crisis

BY KRISTINE CANNON Progress Staff Writer

For weeks, a group of more than 30 Chinese American moms in northern Scottsdale, with the help of Miss Arizona’s Outstanding Teen and BASIS Scottsdale sophomore Teen Katelyn Cai, worked to secure thousands of face masks from relatives overseas.

They reached out to all of their relatives and connections in China, asking them to order the much-needed masks.

“We tapped deep into the social network to procure the supply from overseas. After spending countless hours to find the right face masks, eventually we received on expedited shipping over 4,000 face masks, 2,000 of which were medical-grade Level I Surgical Masks made by the Canadian company Medicom,” said Jenny Zheng, coordinator of the donation drive and Katelyn’s mom.

The group donated supplies to two organizations the week of March 27: to the City of Scottsdale, more than 2,900 face masks, more than 50 boxes of facial tissues, 12 rolls of toilet paper, 150 medical exam gloves, and a $1,180 check to help families who lost jobs; and to Banner Health Gateway Medical Center in Gilbert, 1,500 medical-grade surgical face masks.

“It is our consensus that we need to stand up and do something for our neighbors and our city. We live here, and we raise our family here. Here is our home, our own community. When we help our neighbors, we help ourselves. Saving our doctors is the same as saving ourselves,” Zheng said.

At Zheng’s household, the coronavirus pandemic hit close to home in January, months before the virus became a reality for Americans.

They heard many stories from overseas, including from Katelyn’s uncle, a

���KATELYN ���� 21

Miss Arizona’s Outstanding Teen and BASIS Scottsdale sophomore Teen Katelyn Cai met with Michael Herring, COO at Banner Gateway Medical Center, on March 30 to donate 1,500 medical-grade surgical face masks. (Katelyn Cai)

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“As Chinese Americans, we are in a unique position in this �ight. What happens now, we have seen it before: The lockdowns, face mask shortages, and dire situations in the over-stretched health centers seem all too familiar from two-months-ago China,” Zheng said. “Thus, we probably understand the severity and devastation of coronavirus much earlier than the general American public do.”

“This has kind of been on our minds for a really long time,” Katelyn added. “We hoped it would never come to the United States or get this bad, but we always had it in the back of our minds that we’d be doing whatever we could to help either our relatives or people in our community.”

The group was alerted of the rapidly dwindling supply of face masks at Banner Gateway Medical Center by a medical oncologist who works there.

“The outpouring of community engagement and support from individuals like Katelyn and others inspires us and lets our teams know they have entire communities that care about them and want to help,” said Michael Herring, COO at Banner Gateway Medical Center.

Among those making masks is Patti Council, owner of Glam Squad, a prom and pageant store located in southern Scottsdale. Glam Squad is the of�icial wardrobe partner of the Miss Arizona Organization.

“There are several people in the Miss Arizona organization who are actually making homemade face masks right now and donating them to vulnerable people around the community. It’s something that we encourage for everybody, if they have extra supplies, extra hand sanitizer or masks to donate

“Everyone that we’d made masks for has offered to pay us for them. We cannot monetize a project that is literally life or death for so many.”

Katelyn Cai met with Kristine Hahn-McDonald, City of Scottsdale Human Services Coordinator, on March 27 to donate 2,910 face masks, 53 boxes of tissues, 12 rolls of toilet paper, 150 medical exam gloves, and a donation of $1,180. (Katelyn Cai)

them if possible,” Katelyn said.

The Glam Squad team made 250 masks and donated them to a senior care facility, two medical of�ices and several healthcare workers.

“Everyone that we’d made masks for has offered to pay us for them. We cannot monetize a project that is literally life or death for so many,” Council said.

Zheng said the group of Chinese American women and moms plans to start a fund and food drive.

“Before our donations to the City of Scottsdale and Banner Gateway, one lady from our group had already distributed about 500 face masks to neighbors in her Scottsdale community via Nextdoor,” she said.

Zheng said their group aims to help at-risk people such as seniors, frontline city workers, and healthcare workers.

“Many Chinese American communities in Arizona and across the U.S. have mobilized and united in the �ight against Coronavirus since the pandemic started. Several of these groups have been focusing on sourcing and donating PPEs (personal protective equipment) to healthcare personnel in Arizona. Our small group of Chinese American women/moms in Scottsdale mainly focuses on the communities we live in,” she said.

Katelyn said that it’s also important at this time to combat xenophobia at this time and “show that Chinese Americans are trying to do their part.”

“I want to highlight how big of a role the Asian American and the Chinese American community played in this because, even though I did my part, it was a huge group of moms and families who have committed so much of their time and their own money to this project,” she said.

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