THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | JUNE 13, 2021
19 COMMUNITY
Teen volunteer group offers summer camps ARIZONAN NEWS STAFF
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new volunteer organization for high school and middle school that recently descended on Desert Breeze Park in Chandler to spruce up the site also is offering an array of virtual summer camps. The young students belong to iReach, which aims “to provide a flexible platform for volunteers to develop responsibility, confidence, leadership, and communication skills through a variety of community services programs,” spokeswoman Sherry Xiao said. “We are a group of students who want to serve our community,” said iReach President Frank Liu, a 10th grader at BASIS Mesa. “We provide a platform to children and teens who have the same ambition – to serve the community and
Core members of iReach include, from left: front row: Joanna Dong, Elizabeth Ovelil, Sophia Lin, Daniel Yang; Back: Frank Liu, Edward Zhang, Aidan Lin, Wing Wang. (Courtesy of iReach)
improve ourselves while doing that.” Liu said the group welcomes any student who wants to dedicate time to volunteer and make an impact in their community. iReach team chose Chandler Adopt-APark program as one of its first activities by committing to spend time at Desert Breeze once a month. During their inaugural clean-up last month, 20 students and several parents teamed up to pick up trash, clean tables and do other tidying up work at the park. This will be a monthly activity for iReach and Xiao said she is hoping more volunteers are going to join them in the future at the park. iReach also has volunteers offering one-on-one tutoring programs.
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Chandler girl gets to flex her ‘CEO’ muscles BY SYDNEY MACKIE Staff Writer
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ot every kid may dream of becoming a CEO some day, but 11-yearold Indigo Chai of Chandler actually won the opportunity to do so at the Crayola Experience last month. Indigo won the title of “chief experience officer” last year with a convincing video resume and was invited to tour the Crayola store near the Chandler Fashion Center when the mall reopened last year to provide kid-expert feedback to the company. Indigo’s father found the application in a Chandler magazine and her family encouraged her to apply. He noted his daughter has always been drawn to creative endeavors and had many captivating ideas for the Crayola brand. “It was definitely a whirlwind of emotions. It was just me and my parents at
Indigo Chai of Chandler got a big kick out of her role as chief experience officer at the Crayola Experience store near Chandler Fashion Center. (Courtesy of Crayola)
the house and it was kind of coincidental because they are an arts and crafts brand and we were just settling down to do a craft together, we didn’t expect the call to come,” Indigo said. “It was a lot of happiness for sure. It was overwhelming and it kind of felt unreal.” Indigo’s day at the Crayola Experience began with a store-wide welcome at 9 a.m. followed by a staff briefing. Then she officially opened the store for the day before listening to presentations about the company’s attractions and merchandise development process. Finally, she toured and assessed the facility and storefront before an audience of about 300 people. Chai had visited the store twice before the event and said she “really loved the idea of a place that was centered allaround creativity.”
see CEO page 21
