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THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 13, 2022
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Mesa woman helps feed hungry local children BY NICHOLAS JOHNSEN Cronkite News
J
oan Leafman spent much of her life as a medical researcher – teaching in a doctoral program, presenting studies at conferences and publishing research. “But there comes a point in your life,” she said, “where you don’t want to talk – you want to do.” For Leafman, that moment came when her daughter, Corbin Leafman, 30, died of breast cancer. Corbin taught kindergarten at Title 1 schools, working with children from low-income families, and she made it her mission to ensure that no child went hungry. “She very specifically asked to be remembered by how she lived, and not why she died,” Leafman said of her daughter. Inspired by Corbin’s resolve, Leafman founded Corbin’s Legacy in 2015 to help reduce food and medical insecurity
among underserved schoolchildren. The Mesa organization runs such programs as Food for Thought, delivering meals to kids in classrooms, and Weekend Food Warriors, which send backpacks of food home with children and parents on Fridays. In July 2020, Corbin’s Legacy delivered its two-millionth meal to a family in need. But providing meals isn’t the only way the charity aims to help children. In partnership with A.T. Still University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine, Corbin’s Legacy opened the Simon Clinic at Emerson Elementary School in Mesa to provide health care to children right on school grounds. The clinic, named for Dr. Harvey Simon, a public health pediatrician and professor at A.T. Still, provides physical exams, eye checks and dental screening to about 25 students daily, Mondays through Thursdays.
see SIMON page 18
Joan Leafman was inspired by her daughter, Corbin, left, to launch a foundation to help underserved children. Corbin Leafman, a teacher, died of breast cancer at age 30 (Courtesy
of Joan Leafman)
Gilbert man motivated for Arizona AIDS Walk TRIBUNE STAFF REPORT
S
ince Lorenzo Garza of Gilbert participated in his first AIDS Walk nearly 20 years ago in San Antonio. So much has changed, both for him and for society’s acceptance and understanding of the impact of HIV and AIDS. What hasn’t changed, and what continues to motivate him in his inaugural Arizona AIDS Walk & 5K Fun Run on Saturday, Feb. 19, at Tempe Beach Park is the memory of his brother David. “My brother died of AIDS in 1989 at the height of the pandemic and he’s who I think about,” Garza said. “He died a week before is 23rd birthday. I was a 17-yearold junior in high school and it had a significant impact.” Not just in the heartbreaking loss of his brother, but in coming to grips with a fact in his life that so many young men and women still battle with.
Gilbert Resident Lorenzo Garza, left, finds motivation for next Saturday’s Arizona AIDS Walk in the fact that his older brother, David, died of the disease. (Special to The Tribune) “I’m a gay male and his death pushed me deeper into the closet because I was
afraid of what my potential fate would be because of that,” he said.
Garza pushed through that closet door just before turning 30. That door is now permanently closed. “I just knew I wasn’t being myself,” he said. “I was at a point where I needed to be my authentic true self, whatever that meant, whatever the consequences.” The first hurdle was telling his parents. “I was so terrified of that, but once they knew and once they came to terms with it, I moved forward.” That forward motion will serve him well as he negotiates the 5K run at this year’s event. Proceeds from the 2022 AIDS Walk & 5K Fun Run will directly benefit Aunt Rita’s Foundation’s 14 partner agencies providing critical HIV services including testing, treatment, behavioral health, housing and prevention, among others. Garza carries an even stronger connection this year as his employer, Carvana, is
see AIDS page 18
