COMMUNITY

Restaurateur pens inspirational book

BY GERI KOEPPEL

Arizonan Contributor

Randy Walters has been many things in his 68 years: hospital corpsman, painter, restaurateur and minister among them. Now, he’s added another line to his resume: Author.

He drew upon a decade of running restaurants in Chandler to write a book titled “Hamburgers, Hot Dogs & Hugs: Real stories of faith, kindness, caring, hope, and humor served up at a small diner with a plate of comfort food and a side of unconditional love,” published by Me Youniversity Publishing.

During his years helming Pittsburgh Willy’s in the Merchant Square antiques mall from 2008-13 and then Wimpy’s Paradise in downtown Chandler from 2013-18, Walters said many people told him he should write a book.

“I hope people will read these stories and understand any of us can make a difference in somebody’s life,” he said. He calls love and kindness a “superpower” that everyone has and can use.

The chapters detail interactions Walters had with customers and lessons he’s learned in life. The stories burst with optimism and hope, something that any of his 1,600 or so Facebook friends or his former customers won’t be surprised to hear.

Kim Schulz of Chandler recalls going frequently to Wimpy’s Paradise both for the award-winning burgers and dogs and his famous free hugs.

“It’s one of those really good hugs,” she said, “the kind that when you’re having a bad day and you want a hug, you know exactly where to get it.”

Schulz continued, “He had this chalkboard outside the restaurant and would write kind and inspiring things. Even if you didn’t stop in the restaurant, you’d still be inspired to do better in the world.” She added, “We need more people like that in the world to spread the love and make everybody feel wanted and valued.” Walters shares tales of welcoming customers experiencing homelessness and how he learned to provide not just food, but dignity. He writes about making Muslim friends through his restaurant and then hosting a “Muffins with Muslims” chat for people who wanted to learn more about a religion often vilified in the media. Speaking of media, Walters relates in his book how he learned early on how to promote his business with no advertising or marketing budget. He capitalized on Super Bowl XLIII, when his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers played the Arizona Cardinals. He sold hot dogs for $1.22 when the

Randy Walters said his new book aims to inspire readers on making a diff erence.

(Courtesy Randy Walters)

�eeWALTERS page 26

Chandler native now explores the world’s oceans

BY KEN SAIN

Arizonan Staff Writer

Chandler native Mattie Rodrigue says she’s seen more than a few raised eyebrows when she tells them a kid from the desert is now a marine biologist.

“They say, ‘What?!’” Rodrigue said. “More often than not I get questions from people … ‘Ah, I wanted to do that when I was a kid, and then I decided to go somewhere else. So my goal is to make sure any kid that wants to be a marine biologist, knows that it’s a possibility.”

Now, Rodrigue spends most of the year on the OceanX ship as its science program lead. OceanX is a global nonprofit ocean exploration organization.

Rodrigue returned to Chandler earlier this month to visit with family. While here, she made an appearance at the OceanX Adventure exhibit currently being displayed at the Crayola Experience in Chandler Fashion Center.

She credited her teachers while she was growing up in Chandler for helping her the ship, which she is about 8-to-10 months a year, she calls New York home.

“Mattie actually had a couple of weeks break, and because she is local here in Chandler, OceanX had reached out to us,” said Casey Santoro, the general manager at Crayola Experience. “We thought, what a great partnership, we already had the OceanX display going on here, so it just fit perfectly for everybody.”

Rodrigue said she loved to explore the desert when she was growing up.

“I want to know what is out there, I want to find new things, I want to discover and explore,” Rodrigue said. “But ultimately I’m passionate about the future of the oceans.”

Rodrigue said it was on a trip to California when she was in the fourth grade that her mother suggested she talk to a marine biologist. That’s how a kid from the desert who grew up hundreds of miles away from any ocean became interested in marine biology.

Chandler native Mattie Rodrigue leads a discussion about OceanX at the Crayola Experience at Chandler Fashion Center. She’s the science program lead on board the explora-

tion ship. (Ken Sain/Staff )

At 97, Sun Lakes author pens novel on flamboyant opera icon

BY SRIANTHI PERERA Arizonan Contributor

Many biographies have been written about Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, but none read like a thriller.

Sun Lakes playwright, teacher and novelist Mel Weiser’s “Viva Puccini,” a new historical biography in novel form, fills in the gap.

Weiser captures the essence of the composer’s life: adversity, love, tragedy, death and sexual conquest – qualities found in the great master’s operas – and weaves a compelling tale.

“There is anger in it, there is some mystery, there is a tremendous conflict in it,” said Weiser, who at 97 has four other published books and nine produced stage plays to his credit.

“There is excitement in terms of how the mystery is revealed or the mysteries of his life are revealed and how, ultimately, they lead to the inevitable conclusion, his death.”

Why Puccini?

It seems that Puccini chose Weiser as much as Weiser chose him.

Years ago, Weiser read a book on the composer and was so fascinated by him that he scribbled notes on the margins.

“One day, I was sitting in the bedroom where the bookshelves were and across the room from them – this is almost mystical – I’m looking at the bookshelf, and one book from all those books in the shelf, for no reason that I can understand, seemed to jump out at me,” he said.

“I kept staring at it and – I couldn’t read the title of it or anything – so I got out of my chair and I walked over and pulled this book out and it was the Puccini book.”

Weiser leafed through it, read his own comments and said to himself: "There’s a book in this."

To research Puccini’s remarkable life further, Weiser bought and read eight different biographies about him. He browsed online for more tidbits. He listened to his popular operas – “La BoSun Lakes author Mel Weiser has published a page-turner on Italian composer

Puccini. (Courtesy of Mel Weiser)

heme,” “Tosca,” “Madame Butterfly” and “Turandot” – and cultivated a deep understanding and appreciation of them. He read analysis of the compositions.

Then, he began writing the novel.

“I had great fun writing about Puccini,” Weiser said.

While a biography has to be factual, a novel gets more latitude, he noted.

“One sticks to the facts of his life but one embroiders those with imagination,” Weiser explained. “For example, if in a biography it says that he spent a lot of time trying to find time to write his music, that’s very vague.”

“The writer of a novel has considerable latitude and I use that latitude to create situations to indicate how he didn’t have time, what was he doing in those times that he didn’t have time,” he added. “Or, if it says great conflict with his wife Rivera, now I want to know what those conflicts were like and in biographies you can’t get full details like that but they tell you they had great conflict,” he said. “What was said actually between them: that’s where the novelist comes in, in order to make that moment memorable and understandable.”

Weiser was fascinated by Puccini’s life for several reasons.

Forced into a music career at an early age, Puccini resisted every effort to shape his future. He preferred to loaf, to pursue women and to cavort with like-minded friends. However, fate decreed that he was to carry on his family’s musical tradition.

Puccini became one of the greatest opera composers of all time. But, along with success, he experienced disappointment and pain.

One reason Weiser was captivated by Puccini pertained to his relationships with women. His wife, Elvira, was dominating, but she was also the mother of his only child. So, he didn’t leave them.

He loved women and had many affairs. He used to go away from home very often and on those trips, he invariably found some women or some woman found him, Weiser said.

One such affair was scandalous. While on a train journey, a woman introduced herself to him and he found her fascinating.

“She in turn found him very fascinating. He invited her to dinner. That night after dinner they found themselves in bed together,” he said. “He developed a very strong love for her and was even ready to leave his wife for her and proposed to this woman.”

Puccini soon became very careless and used to parade around with her on his arm. “Eventually, the word reached his family and Elvira, and there was madness, threats and everything else,” Weiser said.

The family decided to investigate the woman and discovered that she was a prostitute who had sought him out in the same manner she frequently sought other men.

The family made his life miserable. “He had to separate himself from her and the separation was dramatic and painful,” Weiser said.

Weiser’s own life is not without drama. He started writing at 19, aboard a WWII aircraft carrier. It didn’t go down too well because he was suffering from acute seasickness and unable to perform his duties. He managed to read a book, The Adventures of Cortez, which inspired him to learn how to write well.

“I remember putting the book on my chest and saying to myself, ‘If I could write like this, I could be happy for the rest of my life,’” he said.

He tried to write on board the ship, but he knew nothing about writing and didn’t have much to draw from life experiences.

“Nothing came out and that’s when the decision was made, you had to go and learn what this is all about and how it works,” he said.

The native New Yorker enrolled in college, and went on to teach English, first in the school system and later in college. He taught for more than 30 years, until he found it was “enough.” At age 55, about the time he retired, he wrote and published his first book. He had the good fortune to have a friend who knew an agent, who sold the manuscript without any trouble. “That was a fluke. That never happened again. After that, it was a struggle as I was learning how to do this,” he said.

Weiser developed his playwriting and directing career alongside teaching. He has been a stage director of more than 25 professional productions in regional theaters, and once on Broadway.

His last book, On 174th Street: The World of Willie Mittleman, is a delightful family story set in 1930s New York. His next book, The Crown Of Sammuramat, will be a mystery-thriller linked to the fabled and ancient Assyrian empire.

Creativity keeps Weiser writing and publishing at 97 and enhances his life. His book shelves are filled with manuscripts awaiting his attention.

“If one is creative, one has to do what that force demands of him. It’s the same with a painter, it’s the same with a sculptor,” he said. “When one learns how to do something and to do it well, and I’m pleased to say I think I do it well, there’s enormous satisfaction in doing it.

“I just can’t stop.”

“Viva Puccini” is available at amazon. com and barnes&noble.com for $23.95.

OCEANS from page 24

Now she dives in their underwater vehicles to depths of 3,000 feet below the surface. She also has sent robots down as far as 18,000 feet to explore.

That has allowed her to meet new species on a regular basis. How often?

“Pretty often,” she said. “I don’t have the exact count for you, but we have an amazing resource in the vessel. We get a lot of eyes underwater, a lot of eyes on the surface, and a lot of eyes up in the air. … Utilizing the capacity that we have on board, helps us see in those places at the right time where we’re able to discover something great.”

Rodrigue said she enjoys a chance to tell children about OceanX’s mission.

“I haven’t done one in person in a while, obviously,” Rodrigue said. “But especially coming to my hometown, and especially getting to talk to kids who are just like me when I was little, and interested and curious but maybe not sure what the next step is. Or how to get involved in what they’re curious and excited about. Anything I can do is just incredible.”

Skate team, moving firm team up to help Hopi tribe

BY KEN SAIN

Arizonan Staff Writer

Figure skating is not an inexpensive sport. Most young people who participate come from families that can afford it.

“They have a lot of stuff, they’re very fortunate,” said Jaime Kalnicky, the coach of the Ice Denettes Synchronized Skating Team based in Chandler. “Sometimes it’s easy to overlook that when you haven’t seen true need.”

Kalnicky decided to lead a toy drive to help members of the Hopi tribe.

“I had already like made contact with the elders, and really kind of felt passionate about it, because they are a nongaming tribe, so they don’t have income like most of the tribes do from gaming.”

The Hopi tribe was the last in Arizona to sign on to gambling, doing so in late 2017. Its members had twice rejected allowing gambling before that. They finally agreed after a coal mine on their lands was shut down. Hopi land is far from main population centers and tourist attractions, being near Tuba City.

Kalnicky chose a group of six villages, many of which do not have running water or electricity. Kalnicky said the unemployment rate is 60 percent or higher. She asked her 60-member team if they were willing to help, and the answer was a resounding yes.

“We just thought it would be a good idea to do something for other people, because we have a lot of stuff that we don’t really use anymore,” Katelyn Brotherton of Scottsdale said.

The members of the team are from all parts of the East Valley and as far away as Casa Grande to train at Chandler’s Ice Den. “As figure skaters, we come from families who can afford a sport like this, so it feels good to give,” said Emily Christian of Tempe.

Kalnicky said she had never tried to organize something like this before, and realized she would need some help getting all the toys to the reservation. She contacted Chad Olsen of Camelback Moving and was surprised by how much help he was willing to offer.

“When Jaime reached out to us last week about the toy drive, it was perfect timing,” Olsen said. “The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is pretty slow in the moving industry. It allows us to devote resources to a good cause. It’s our favorite time of the year.”

Olsen offered trucks to take the toys and other goods to the reservation. He also put the word out on his mailing list to ask for donations, and he provided storage space for all the toys that came in. After five days, the skaters and the moving company had collected more than 7,000 pounds of goods. Kalnicky said she suspects they will be over 12,000 pounds by the time they drive them up to the reservation.

The donations include cash, toys, clothing and other goods.

Kalnicky said she recently spoke with one of the elders to coordinate delivery, and they teared up, saying “It’s been a really, really sad winter.”

In addition to dealing with COVID and losing many jobs with the coal plant closing, many tribe members used to rely on that coal to heat their homes. Now, they have to purchase it for $40 for a four-day supply.

And many can’t afford that, so they have turned to wood for heat. However, the nearest forest is 75 miles away.

“It’s heartbreaking, which I didn’t really know,” Kalnicky said. “This kind of happened, and I’m really glad it did. It’s probably the thing I felt best about in a long time.”

The Ice Denettes Synchronized Skating Team helped children in the Hopi tribe have a happier Christmas by collecting toys. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)

WALTERS from page 24

temperature hit 122, reeling in multiple local news stations for coverage.

“I got people lined up out my front door that had seen my segments live, and that’s when it hit me: Media is powerful,” he said.

When Walters was transitioning from Merchant Square to downtown Chandler, his original plan was to open two distinct restaurants: Pittsburgh Willy’s for hot dogs and Wimpy’s Paradise for hamburgers, named after a diner his father ran before Walters was born.

However, he suffered a heart attack and decided one location would be enough. He later had another heart attack, and in November 2020, lost his son-on-law suddenly to diabetes. Just after that, his wife, Cyndee, was diagnosed with cancer.

And in January 2021, Walters was hospitalized for 20 days with COVID-19 and almost didn’t make it, which he writes about.

He chronicled his battle in real time via Facebook posts and videos, saying, “I wanted to share it with everyone so they knew what really happened during that process.”

At one point, he admitted, “The pain was so bad that I said to God, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’”

But then he recalled his granddaughter Kara’s battle with Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS)—a condition that affects blood flow—and how she nearly died three times and made it. About a year before his hospital stay, she was on a ventilator for about a week.

“The day she came off the ventilator, I reached over and she couldn’t talk well, and I kissed her forehead, and I said, ‘Baby, it’s the third time now, you were at death’s door and fought and came back.’ And she looked up at me and smiled and said, ‘Papa, I’m hard to kill.’”

That’s when he realized he couldn’t give up.

When asked how he keeps a positive attitude in the face of so many heartbreaks and setbacks, Walters recounted the story of a marine he knew who had lost both legs, most of both arms and his vision to a landmine explosion in Vietnam.

Walters recalled saying, “It was an honor and privilege to know you, but can I ask you something? You have every reason to be angry and bitter, but every day you laugh and joke and lift our spirits. How do you do it?” The marine told him to come in close and he put his lips to Walter’s ears and said, “I came home.”

Walters teared up as he stated, “Those three words changed my life. I never felt sorry for myself ever again the rest of my life because there are always people who are worse off.”

Walters, however, still battles with health issues.

“I lost my spleen to COVID and 30 percent of my right lung to COVID pneumonia. And I can’t walk more than about 60 steps without having to rest. But I keep thinking back to that marine. There are people who can’t walk 60 steps. I can walk 60 steps, so I’ll take it.”

So when you see someone park in an ADA spot and walk into a grocery store, or someone is rude to you at work or makes an unprovoked attack on social media, Walters urges people to pull out their superpowers.

“Everybody’s going through something,” he said. “Be kind. You don’t know.”

“Hamburgers, Hot Dogs & Hugs” is available now on Amazon as a paperback and on Kindle. Walters can be reached for speaking engagements at damillhunk22@yahoo.com.