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Neighbors
Feb. 6 - Feb. 19, 2016
www.SanTanSun.com
Neighbors Dancing Devils of Yare exhibition opens Feb. 9 in Gilbert page 65
A lesson in a 500-year-old Michelangelo sketch page 68
Where to Eat page 75
‘Cinderella Affair’ gives girls their fairytale moment with her best friend, Becca Weinstock, both The magic of Cinderella never fades. of Mesa. Even today, 319 years after Charles “The dress was really cool and it made Perrault added the pumpkin, fairy me feel so beautiful to put it on.” godmother and glass slipper to Shumway and Weinstock are among Giambattista Basile’s first written version of more than 9,000 high schoolers who have the story Walt Disney made famous, the Fairy Godmother’s admonition rings clear: “Nonsense child. If you’d lost all your faith, I couldn’t be here. And here I am.” And she remains, not with a wand and a bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, but with many smiles, helping hands and thousands of free ball gowns that have come to mean the annual Cinderella Affair is at hand. Now in its 14th year, the East Valley Women’s League’s (EVWL) Cinderella Affair offers free gowns, shoes and accessories for high school juniors and seniors to choose from. “The biggest part of the Cinderella Affair is making the girls feel special,” said East Valley Women’s League President Christina McNamara. “It’s more than a dress and an outfit for one night. It’s to be there, help them find the perfect dress, give them hugs and tell them Becca Weinstock, dressed in her Cinderella gown, how pretty they look.” This year’s Cinderella Affair takes and her date head off to prom. Submitted photo place on three Saturdays—March 26, April 2 and April 9 from 8 a.m. to 3 selected from the thousands of donated p.m. each day—at the Cinderella Affair dresses since 2002. Boutique, 411 N. McKemy Ave., in Chandler, “I went with Raychelle in 2014 because in a space donated by EVWL member Traci she had been the previous year,” Weinstock Estenson and her husband. High school girls said. “I loved it. There’s such a large quantity statewide are invited. IDs are required. and they’re divided into different rooms by “I chose a dress that was short, black and size to make it easy. You just go and have kind of ruffly,” recalls Raychelle Shumway, fun without a price tag and all the dresses who visited the Cinderella Affair Boutique are gorgeous.” in 2013 for her junior prom and came back And, like it is for McNamara and her last year to volunteer as a college freshman see CINDERELLA page 47
BY STEVE CARR
Eat Your Art Out, Chandler’s most popular CCA fundraiser BY MICHELLE TALSMA EVERSON
Since 1989, the Chandler Center for the Arts (CCA) has been an integral part of the community. In fact, according to the CCA, more than 300,000 people visit the center each year—and many times a volunteer is their first point of contact. On a regular basis the CCA hosts several low cost and free community-centric events. To do so, the CCA promotes community fundraisers, one of their most popular being Eat Your Art Out Chandler, which takes place on Tuesday, Feb. 23. During the event, select area restaurants donate the proceeds they make from lunch
and dinner sales that day to the CCA. “This is a community event that brings together Chandler restaurants, arts patrons and arts supporters for a day where we have the opportunity to support for the arts in our community by eating out,” said Michelle Mac Lennan, general manager of the CCA. “Participating restaurants donate 25 percent of their proceeds on this day [and] all you have to do is have a meal.” Mac Lennan said that these funds go toward supporting the Free Summer Concert Series, Connecting Kidz initiatives and see FUNDRAISER page 47
For Patti Luttrell, the fight against cancer is personal. STSN photo by Tim Sealy
Patti Luttrell turns son’s fight with cancer into mission to help others BY JASMINE KEMPER
Patti Luttrell is the one of the most kind-hearted people you’ll ever meet. As the co-founder and executive director of the Chandler-based 501(c) (3) nonprofit Children’s Cancer Network, she works to help Arizona families who are battling childhood cancer through fundraisers, programs, support and education. “We’re there from the moment of diagnosis all the way through long-term survivorship,” Luttrell said. Childhood cancer is no stranger to the Luttrell family. In 1993 her then-5year-old son Jeff Luttrell was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Jeff
has spent 22 years of his life battling cancer. Luttrell and her family were lucky when it came to the diagnosis. She is a registered nurse who worked at Grand Canyon University for nine years; she and her husband had stable jobs, good health insurance and the support from many friends and family. “I think we had a lot of connections, but we see so many families who don’t. That can make a huge difference in coping with this rollercoaster that cancer throws you on. We don’t want any family to feel as though they’re see LUTTRELL page 50
Wake up the taste buds at Pitta Souvli Mediterranean Grill BY JUDI KING
The owners of Pitta Souvli are out to prove that nutritious food need not be dull. “We try to come up with interesting, healthy, really good food,” said Lisa Schommer, who co-owns the restaurant with husband, Paul. “Using fresh
ingredients every day and the talents of our amazing kitchen staff, our delicious made-from-scratch food is unique. We like to come up with new dishes all the time like the pork burger created by Paul.” The menu is just as innovative as she suggested. see PITTA SOUVLI page 48