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GILBERT SUN NEWS | FEBRUARY 13, 2022
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Gilbert man’s historical mystery set in Gilbert 1918 BY ASHLYN ROBINETTE GSN Contributor
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magine going for a run, yet suddenly traveling back in time – to Gilbert 1918. This is the plot of Gilbert resident Jason Cvancara’s first novel, “Zona Investigations: The 918 Files: Case 000317Gilbert,” which was published last month. The historical mystery novel follows Harry, a man who was found lying in the street covered in bruises and scratches after time slipping into Gilbert 1918. Rather than being in the wrong place, wrong time, Harry was in the right place, wrong era. Set 30 years into the future, Cvancara’s “The 918 Files” book series revolves around an investigator being put into a
Gilbert resident Jason Cvancara, a private detective in real life with an office in Mesa, has just written his first novel in which a private detective agency plays a major role. (Special to GSN)
nursing home because he has an early onset of dementia. While he’s clearing out his office with his grandson, his grandson finds the 918 case files and asks what they are. So, he pulls out one of the files, the first being the Gilbert case, and tells the story of what happened. “Each file is going to be a book, so we have four or five already lined up,” Cvancara said. “They are all going to be based off of the private investigator from Zona Investigations who works out of Arizona. It’s going to be weird stuff, but I’m going to keep it as real as possible.” For the protagonist, Harry, the phenomenon of “time slipping” becomes his reality. “Time slipping” involves traveling through time by unknown means
see AUTHOR page 19
Gilbert teen giving scholarships to teachers BY KEN SAIN GSN Staff Writer
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Gilbert resident and Basha High School senior says her biggest worry when she decided to give scholarships to teachers was not trying to raise the money, but would anyone apply? “For me, the more intimidating thing was like, ‘I don’t know if anyone’s going to apply. I was praying just like one person, please apply so I can actually like do the project.” There was no reason for Jadyn Ocampo to fret. She left the application window open for two weeks and 34 Chandler Unified School District teachers applied for the Al and Laurie Ocampo Scholarship. Jadyn said she wanted to raise money for teachers for her senior project
Basha High senior and Gilbert resident Jadyn Ocampo said her parents are both teachers and both have college debt, so she started a scholarship fund for Chandler Unified School District to help them out. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)
because she has seen how the student loans teachers take out to get their degrees can take decades to pay off. Both her parents are teachers. “One day it just kind of clicked,” Jadyn said. “My mom faces student debt. I lived with her in Flagstaff when she was in grad school at NAU, and I see her 10 years later still paying for that degree. I know that affects a lot of educators.” Jadyn was hoping to raise $1,000 to give to one teacher when she first started the project. She ended up raising more than $4,000 on a GoFundMe page. She decided to award three $1,000 scholarships and four $300 scholarships. “I was moved by all the stories,” Jadyn said. “There are three stories that really stood out to me.” Jadyn said she knows that with the
see OCAMPO page 22
