The state Department of Education has released letter grades for schools and Queen Creek stacks up with two pub lic schools achieving an A, seven earning a B, three getting a C and one a D.
Queen Creek’s charter schools are also grad ed and one received an A, and six earned a B.
State and federal laws require the Education
A15.2-acre plot of land at the corner of Ellsworth and Chandler Heights Roads is officially on its way to becoming home to a $16-million, 52,000-square-foot church that will seat close to 700 people by the end of 2024.
The Queen Creek Planning and Zoning Commission approved the land use at its re cent meeting.
“This will be a new, permanent campus for us,” said Curt McReynolds, campus pastor for the Queen Creek campus of Christ Church of the Valley, which has campuses across
Department to develop an annual achieve ment profile for every public school in Arizona based on an A through F grading scale.
The system measures year-to-year student academic growth, proficiency on English lan guage arts, math and science, the proficien cy and academic growth of English language learners.
Those indicators show if “an elementary student is ready for success in high school and that high school students are ready to
The Giving Machines return to Gilbert annually and have been a Mecca for generous people throughout the East Valley. Among those marking their return Nov. 18 were, from left, Dr. Grace Nkundabantu, founder and CEO of African Girls Hope Foundation; Ruthy Hodges of Special Olympics Arizona; and Chandler City Councilwoman Christine Ellis. For a story on their importance, see page 11 (Cecilia Chan/Tribune)
succeed in a career or higher education and high school graduation rates,” according to the state Board of Education’s website.
Queen Creek’s graduation rate is 93%.
Due to COVID-19, this year’s letter grades are the most complete and accurate set given since the 2018-2019 school year.
The state uses what it calls “cut scores,” thresholds that a school must meet to attain
“We grabbed some hose, cut it up and were in the pond breathing through the hose as the fire went by,”
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the Valley.
from page 1
He said its dozen campuses combined see an average 35,000 attendees each week and another 5,000 online.
In Queen Creek, Christ Church has been holding services at a temporary location in Faith Mather Elementary School since last year.
McReynolds said the Queen Creek church is currently drawing nearly 500 people on Sundays at the temporary lo cation, which he thinks will provide the foundation for a dedicated and committed group of attendees.
The current location, which McReynolds calls a “portable church,” requires a lot of logistical planning and legwork every week.
“We bring seven trailers worth of equip ment into the school and we set it up on Saturday. And then Sunday we run two services,” McReynolds said.
Then all the gear must be taken down and stored. Having a new, permanent lo cation will allow the church to plan, to better serve the needs of the community, McReynolds said, but also the chance to further its mission.
“I think it’s just the commitment. You can never stop reaching people, never stop trying to have people grow in faith and we want to try to win the Valley for Christ,” he said.
“On the one hand, you could say CCV is a really big church but if you look at the population of Phoenix of almost 5-million people, we are just a drop in the bucket,” McReynolds said.
Unlike other churches, which often launch capital campaigns and borrow money to construct new buildings, CCV is financing this campus – as it does others –with cash, McReynolds said.
“We really are able to operate without
Campus Pastor Curt McReynolds is looking forward to having a permanent home for the Queen Creek location of Christ Church of the Valley by 2024. (Special to the Tribune)
debt,” he said. “We don’t have to mortgage any of the properties. We have been really financially blessed as a church.”
The property is bordered on the west by the Montelena neighborhood, which has a median home value of more than $849,000, according to realtor.com.
McReynolds said the campus will be landscaped with palm trees, a pergola, a coffee shop, and places for people to gath er and interact.
It will also have state of the art technology. Like other construction projects, the church will be facing supply chain issues.
“The main things that have taken longer and that have seemed to stay at a high er lead time has been electrical gear, the main cabinets,” said Jon Carr director of construction operations for the church.
“Those kinds of things are in the 38-45 week lead time, where you’re having to take out almost a year to get those things ordered and in the shop so they can get there,” he said.
Carr said the church is facing compe tition for components from the Taiwan Semiconductor facility in north Phoenix and in addition to that, is facing up to a 50-week waiting period for the audio vid eo gear that will be used for services.
“They are manufactured in France and it’s just taking longer to get things across the ocean and in through port and then here,” Carr said.
Assuming the church gets final approv al from Town Council, construction crews will begin the work in phases while wait ing for materials to arrive, building park ing lots and athletics fields first.
“So that we can start to do our sports program even before the building and then the building will trail that by seven or eight months,” Carr said.
“We’ll also try to release the campus team more and more to try to get in volved with anything that we can within the community.
“If there are big events in Queen Creek, we want to be a part of them and make sure we have a presence there and be come great partners with everyone in the community,” Carr added.
When construction is finished, the church will offer two Sunday services with a goal of adding two more on Saturday, perhaps more during the week.
“Once I have the building and I have the equipment, adding a service is almost free to me,” Carr said.
Christ Church of the Valley built its first church in Peoria in 1982. McReynolds said it has been expanding and building new campuses ever since, and is continuing to work its way East.
“This location was something that CCV has been looking at for a long time. It was kind of a right place, right time moment for us to be able to grab that location,” McReynolds said.
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what I was doing and how people were in that wild sex, drugs and rock and roll com munity, expecting the government to pro vide solutions and I remember some of my friends were on food stamps and they were like ‘my stamps are late, I can’t eat.’
“And I was like ‘go get a job. I’m working, you know?”
Eventually, he started to get serious about paying attention to public policy and the purpose for his life in general.
After his exploits as roadie, firefighter and Alaska crab fisherman, Knox started his own computer business and began looking at the government regulations he was having to abide by as an employ er and employee, which were costing him time and money.
“I was signing both sides of the check, so to speak,” Knox said. “And realizing as an employee and an employer I am responsi ble for many families and how taxes really impact us and impact the business and re ally participating in the whole process of capitalism. It just seemed to me that there were lot of things that needed to be ad dressed, and if not me, who?”
Knox mostly spent his formative years in California’s Bay Area and often visited Queen Creek, where he had ex tended family.
Fast forward through several stops in the U.S., including one in Montana, where he served a single term in the state legisla ture. There, he said he shepherded 16 bills through the House, mostly on education policy and spending.
After more travel, Knox made his way back to Queen Creek three years ago and settled with his wife and two sons, who are homeschooled.
Knox said he and his wife decided to homeschool their kids for family reasons while he was in the Montana Legislature.
During the Queen Creek school board campaign, he faced criticism for being a homeschooling parent seeking a seat on the public school governing board.
But he believes being a taxpayer is rea son enough for anyone to seek a seat on the school board, and being the parent of homeschooled children makes him uniquely qualified to serve.
“I have had a different experience than the average parent because we have had to choose curriculums, I have had to, with my wife’s help, as a team, figure out what works good for one child versus
the other. Not all children learn the same way,” Knox said.
Now, Knox is set to serve his first term on the Queen Creek school board, hav ing ousted 13-year veteran and five-year board President Ken Brague.
“The Knox crowd are very well orga nized,” Brague told the Tribune shortly af ter the election. “They were very prepared. I showed up to a gunfight with a knife.”
Knox calls himself a conservative Republican even though party politics are not meant to play a role in school board elections.
“There was no illusion that I was trying to be non-republican or non-partisan,” Knox said. “Truthfully, I think we need to see legislation come forth to eliminate these non-partisan races because it allows for a lot of shenanigans to occur, people to hide what their core principles are.
“I would say, if anything, the nonpar tisan races … are much nastier, much more personal because people are hid ing under non-partisan and can get away with it.”
Knox has several priorities as a new school board member, which he laid out in a “victory email” after the election.
“Well, here is my game plan, but know I am very open to hearing thoughts from others,” he wrote. “First, I am going to hold a series of listening sessions. I’d love to try and have one before being seated but cer tainly monthly afterward. I would like to include other members if they are willing to participate.
“A casual setting like a coffee shop could
GRADES from page 1
an A, B, C, D or F letter grade.
The Education Department calculates scores using those cutoffs together with data on five quantifiable factors submitted by the schools.
Those factors include student academic growth from year to year.
That calculation seems cut and dried until the “cut scores” are factored in, said Queen Creek Unified Governing Board President Ken Brague.
He said the cutoffs are arbitrary, and can create misleading results.
“Purely an example: Let’s say you have a super high performing school. Last year let’s say all the kid were at 98% and this year, when you test that same school all the kids are at 97%,” Brague said.
“According to the grades, they didn’t grow, they lost, so that’s now a ‘bad’ school even though every single kid was at 97% and to tally outperformed the rest of the state.”
Student achievement growth is just one of the five variables. However, it can have an outsize influence on a school’s letter grade.
For example, it accounts for 50% of the grading score for elementary schools, ac cording to the state, which means even a slight dip in scores can have a dramatic effect on a school’s letter grade.
Thus they paint a picture that may not necessarily be accurate when comparing academic growth and performance year over year.
Pre-COVID, Brague said, “we knocked it out of the park.
“We did phenomenally well. This year we did great, but our percentage of growth wasn’t what it was compared to last year. What I would like to see is if you reach a certain threshold, you get all the points you are eligible to get.”
The state also creates cutoffs and mea sures performance in career or higher
education readiness among high school seniors, high school graduation rates and proficiency on statewide standardized tests, such as the AASA or ACT.
Right now, Queen Creek’s test scores for math and reading proficiency are 63% and 59% percent, respectively – “which in my mind is a D- or an F,” said board member-elect James Knox, who unseated Brague, a 13-year incumbent.
Knox thinks test scores are the most effective way to measure student perfor mance, and the first place that the schools need to improve.
He called on the school board to hold Su perintendent Dr. Perry Berry accountable for bringing them up.
“I think we need to set a three-year plan
saying ‘Superintendent Berry you need to sit here and in three years you need to have the average test scores up to 80%,” Knox said after the recent election. “Work with him, help support him in reaching that goal in three years or he needs to be terminating his contract and we can get someone in there who can do this.”
For high school and K-12 schools, those standardized test scores account for up to 30% of the school’s letter grade.
Frances Brandon-Pickett Elementary, Desert Mountain, Jack Barnes, and Lega cy Traditional, a charter school, dropped from an A to a B. Schnepf Elementary scored a “P,” or passing.
Leading Edge Academy, also a charter, moved up a letter grade, from a C to a B,
Queen Creek Elementary achieved an A and Queen Creek High School went from a C to an A. Queen Creek Junior High scored a C. Newell Barney Junior High also dropped to a C.
The state defines the letter grades as follows:
A (excellent): Distinguished perfor mance on the statewide assessment, sig nificant student growth, high four-year graduation rates, students on track to proficiency; overall performance is signifi cantly higher than state average.
B (highly performing): High perfor mance on statewide assessment and/or significant student growth and/or higher four-year graduation rates and/or moving students to proficiency at a higher rate than the state average.
C (performing): Adequate performance but needs improvement on some indica tors, such as proficiency, growth, or grad uation rate.
D (minimally performing): Inadequate performance in proficiency, growth and/ or four-year graduation rate relative to the state average.
F (failing): Systematic failures in profi ciency, growth, and graduation rates (be low 67%); performance is in bottom 5% of the state.
“I think they are fine-tuning the pro cess,” said Brague, who added that it is nearly impossible to apply one set of arbi trary, general standards to a whole district of students, and lauded the state’s effort to create the letter grades, calling it “import ant, but difficult.”
“It’s the struggle of public education,” Brague said. “You have kids who are strug gling to stay in a class and you have those who are excelling and are bored to tears in a classroom because it’s going so slow and you have to find a way to teach all of those kids so that they are all learning and it’s a huge challenge.”
Home bittersweet home.
Although State Farm Stadium has not been kind to the Arizona Car dinals, who have won once in their last 10 home games, it apparently treats its fans well.
Research by Sidelines sports technol ogy and digital media company lists the Cardinals first in the NFL for offered the most affordable fan experience. Calcu lations incudes the price of an average
wholesale ticket, parking, a 16-ounce beer and a hot dog at stadiums for pre season and regular season games.
The report revealed the Cardinals are the cheapest NFL team to follow this sea son with an average consumer total of $117.46 per game. The Las Vegas Raid ers were the costliest at $273.47.
“It was a pretty packed game, so I think the ticket price for what I got was rea sonable,” said Tucson native Mark Islas, who attended the Seattle Seahawks vs.
Arizona food banks head into the holiday season having to buy more food, at higher prices, for more cli ents, with fewer donations to help them pay for it.
When they can get food at all.
“We have had to purchase more food to be able to keep up with demand and of course we’re not able to purchase all of that food at the prices that we need as well,” said Angie Rodgers, Arizona Food Bank president.
The struggles are the result of a perfect storm of events as the holidays approach: Soaring inflation has driven more people to food banks, which have to pay more to feed them, and lingering supply chain is sues have been made worse by a disease that wiped out more than 50 million birds for poultry farmers, 8 million of which were turkeys.
Inflation is at a 40-year high, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with the Phoenix area posting the highest inflation
rate in the nation for metro areas over the last year, at 12.1%. While fuel and hous ing were a large part of the increase, food prices were 12.6% higher this October than last, the latest month for which data was available.
Those higher prices mean more people
are having to turn to food pantries to help make ends meet, a trend officials expect will continue through the holiday season. Midwest Food Bank – which distributes to local food pantries – said it expects to see as many as 50,000 more people seeking help over this holiday season than last.
promote an open dialogue between my self and the public without a 3-minute limitation and no feedback, as in the pub lic comment section of the monthly board meeting. The primary reason for this is to LISTEN to the public.”
Second, Knox will also follow up on establishing portable classrooms in the wake of the defeat of a $198 million bond measure.
The district will use $5.5-million it set aside in case the bond failed for two doz en portable classrooms. Knox said this is the way the schools should be thinking anyway, rather than continuing to ask tax payers to foot the bill.
The third point is to “establish realis tic goals for Superintendent Perry Ber ry,” Knox wrote. “I think we need to set a three year plan saying ‘superintendent Berry you need to sit here and in three years you need to have the average test scores up to 80%.
“You know, right now we’re at 63 and 57 (for reading and math, respec tively) and which in my mind is a D- or an F and work with him, help support
The higher prices are hitting the food banks, too. The Arizona Farm Bureau esti mates that a traditional Thanksgiving din ner was 44.9% higher this year, with the cost for a 16-pound turkey alone jumping from $19.40 to $32.02. Everything on the farm bureau’s list was higher this year, from cranberries to stuffing.
The spike in turkey prices is being blamed on an outbreak of avian flu, which has led to the deaths or slaughter of mil lions of poultry that have been exposed, according to the Centers for Disease Con trol and Prevention.
“The supply of turkeys is lower and the cost is expected to be higher. So we were not able to procure a huge amount of them like we have in other years,” said Merliee Baptiste, executive director of Midwest Food Bank Arizona. “We are having to piv ot a little bit to find something that would still work for folks for the holidays.”
The Paradise Valley Community Food Bank purchased turkeys and other holiday staples three months ago to avoid supply
him in reaching that goal in three years or he needs to be terminating his con tract and we can get someone in there who can do this.”
Knox also favors limiting the number of students who can take advantage of the district’s open enrolment policy and said Queen Creek students should come first. He said if the district is allowing in too many students from other districts, local kids suffer the consequences when pressed for space.
Knox is also in favor of teaching a more traditional curriculum.
“There will be no time or place to imple ment political agendas, CRT (Critical race Theory), SEL (Social Emotional Learning) etc., which address several of the public and parents’ concerns,” he wrote.
Finally, Knox has said he is opposed to putting additional bonds on future ballots.
“Money is not the answer to anything,” Knox said. “We need to look again at how can we do some creative things and get out of the cycle that we currently are in that tends to be focusing on trying to solve the same problem the same ways that never produced previously.”
chain disruptions, said Kay Norris, execu tive director. But Rodgers said even order ing in time hasn’t always worked because of ongoing supply chain issues.
“We have seen loads canceled and that means the truck did not arrive. We or dered the food and it did not arrive,” Rod gers said.
On top of all that, food banks are seeing fewer donations in these infla tionary times.
Norris said that for the first time in 30 years, the Paradise Valley Community Food Bank had to send out 1,500 fund raising letters soliciting donations that typically flow through the door.
“Our donations, food donations and cash donations are not quite keeping up with the increase in our service numbers,” Norris said.
Officials are quick to remind people that Arizona offers a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for donations to charitable organi zations, worth up to $400 for individuals
or $800 for married couples, according to the Arizona Department of Revenue.
They also note that there are other ways to give. For those who cannot make a donation of food or cash this holiday season, food banks suggest starting a food drive or volunteering at your local food pantry.
“If there are people that have some extra time, whether it’s during the hol idays or throughout the entire year, we really welcome them,” Baptiste said. “That’s equally important as some of the food or financial donations that they might have.”
Despite the struggles, officials said they are still optimistic that the holiday spirit will push people to donate, citing the typical spike in donations during the holidays.
“We’re still hopeful for a strong holiday donation season both in terms of food and funds … we’re hopeful that people still remember that there are people struggling to put food on their table,” said Rodgers.
Tis the season of giving – especially in Gilbert, where the popular Giv ing Machines that let people donate items of need to nonprofits have returned to Water Tower Plaza in the Heritage Dis trict downtown.
“The Giving Machines are a memorable, simple yet touching way to participate in giving during the holiday season,” said Steve Lowder, who along with his wife, Fran, oversees the Jesus Christ of Lat ter-day Saints’ Light the World Campaign in Gilbert.
“They allow us to drop not only finance to those organizations that need it, they al low us to drop cards in a machine wheth er it’s a sewing machine or 100 meals or whether it’s a soccer ball or a scholarship for an African girl.
“It’s so touching, so personable because it’s as if you’re taking that card, you’re taking that scholarship, you’re taking that ball and handing it directly to those in dividuals in those wonderful parts of the world that need it.
“This initiative focuses on light, on kind ness, on joy, on service, on worship and on giving. It helps us to love as God loves us.”
Church leaders, elected Valley officials and nonprofit representatives attended a ribbon cutting Nov. 18 for the vending ma chines, where donations this year will go to:
AZCEND – Provides help such as food boxes, rent and utility assistance and shelter.
Midwest Food Bank – Collects food and distribute it to nonprofit community or government agencies, including food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shel ters, and schools.
Gathering Humanity –Provides es sential goods to Arizona immigrants and refugees. .
House of Refuge – Provides transi tional housing and support services for families experiencing homelessness.
Special Olympics Arizona – Pro vides year-round sports training and ath letic competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
African Girls Hope Foundation –empowers, equip and educate underprivi leged girls in Sub-Sahara Africa.
Donors use their credit cards to pick items in the Gilbert machines such as fresh produce, toys, books, school supplies and sports equipment for the charities they want to donate to.
As part of the Church’s annual campaign, people are asked to take the 25 days lead ing up to Christmas and turn it into a sea son of helping others in need.
Two machines placed next to the Town’s iconic water tower will take donations un til Jan. 1. This year the Light the World Giv ing Machines are in 24 cities worldwide.
In 2018, Gilbert received two Giving Ma chines and one Water Machine that sold bottles of water with the proceeds going to a water charity.
In 2019 two machines were in Gilbert and in 2020 there were no machines in Town or anywhere in the world due to the pandemic. And in 2021 the Church put four machines in Gilbert.
When the Church kicked off its cam paign in 2017 it started with one Giving Machine in Salt Lake City, Utah, which raised over $550,000. The following year, the program expanded to other communi ties around the world, including Gilbert.
Since then, the Church has raised over
$15 million for charities, according to Church spokeswoman Jennifer Wheeler.
“The charities featured in the Giving Ma chines are chosen by a statewide commit tee that works with nonprofits and that committee chose the charities from submit ted applications,” Wheeler said in an email.
Over the years, the Gilbert machines have benefited A New Leaf, Helen’s Hope Chest, St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance, Child Crisis Arizona, Catholic Charities Commu nity Services Arizona and Catholic Chari ties Community Services of Arizona, ac cording to Wheeler.
Asked if inflation will affect giving this year, Wheeler said it’s uncertain.
“We really have no way to determine what the impact of inflation will be on the giving in our community,” she said. “We do know that there is a tremendous amount of need out there and these local organi zations will put the donations to good use in our communities.”
For the first time since the machines were introduced in Gilbert in 2018, there will be four additional locations in Arizona – Glendale, Flagstaff, Gila Valley and Tusc son. This year, 28 cites around the world are hosting the machines, Lowder said.
According to Lowder, for the first time the church is launching mobile Giving Ma chines, piloting them in Arizona.
Gilbert and Glendale will each have two stationary machines while two addition al machines are being installed for two weeks each at Flagstaff, The Gila Valley and Tucson, Wheeler said.
“The two (mobile) machines that will move from location to location will be transported via a trailer,” she said. “Flag staff, The Gila Valley and Tucson each have Giving Machines committees that
set up the machines when they arrive and take them down to be transported to the next location.”
Also making its annual appearance is the Town’s Water Tower holiday lighting and concert, 6-8:30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 28, at Water Tower Plaza, 45 W. Page Ave.
The mayor and council members will light the Gilbert Water Tower to kick off the holiday season.
This year’s event also includes free fam ily activities, food trucks and live music by Ryan Ralston, who will perform family friendly holiday music.
Besides horse-drawn carriage rides, children can go down a gingerbread slide, run through a candy-land obstacle course and bounce inside a wrapped gift box.
Some tasty treats from vendors include holiday-themed hot coco, waffles, ham burgers and more for credit card pay ments or cash as no ATMs are on site.
After the lighting, visitors can enjoy the festive colors on the tower each evening through Jan. 2 synchronized to holiday mu sic played every half hour from 5:30-10 p.m.
For a cost, people can view Gilbert’s Ri parian Preserve come alive with holiday lights, 5:30-9 p.m. Dec. 9-20, 2757 E. Gua dalupe Road.
Thousands of holiday lights and displays will greet visitors as they stroll through the preserve.
Local food and drinks vendors will be on-site.
Advanced ticket costs are $2 per person through Dec. 8. From Dec. 9-20, the cost is $5 per person. Children 3 and younger are free.
For more information, go to gilber taz.gov/departments/parks-and-recreation/special-events-and-permits/ riparian-after-dark.
Mesa, AZ – When it comes to chronic pain and/ or neuropathy, the most common doctor-prescribed treatment is drugs like Gabapentin, Lyrica, Cymbalta, and Neurontin. The problem with antidepressants or anti-seizure medications like these is that they offer purely symptomatic relief, as opposed to targeting and treating the root of the problem. Worse, these drugs often trigger an onset of uncomfortable, painful, and sometimes harmful side effects.
The only way to effectively treat chronic pain and/or peripheral neuropathy is by targeting the source, which is the result of nerve damage owing to inadequate blood flow to the nerves in the hands and feet. This often causes weakness, numbness, balance problems. A lack of nutrients causes the nerves degenerate – an insidious
cannot survive, and thus, slowly die. This leads to those painful and frustrating consequences we were talking about earlier, like weakness, numbness, tingling, balance issues, and perhaps even a burning sensation.
The drugs your doctor might prescribe will temporarily conceal the problems, putting a “Band-Aid” over a situation that will only continue to deteriorate without further action.
Thankfully, Mesa is the birthplace of a brandnew facility that sheds new light on this pressing problem of peripheral neuropathy and chronic pain. The company is trailblazing the medical industry by replacing outdated drugs and symptomatic reprieves with an advanced machine that targets the root of the problem at hand.
1. Finding the underlying cause
2. Determining the extent of the nerve damage (above 95% nerve loss is rarely treatable)
3. The amount of treatment required for the patient’s unique condition
Aspen Medical in Mesa, AZ uses a state-of-the-art electric cell signaling systems worth $100,000.00.
Th is ground-breaking treatment is engineered to achieve the following, accompanied by advanced diagnostics and a basic skin biopsy to accurately analyze results:
1. Increases blood flow
2. Stimulates and strengthens small fiber nerves
3. Improves brain-based pain
The treatment works by delivering energy to the affected area(s) at varying wavelengths, from low- to middle-frequency signals, while also using Amplitude Modulated (AM) and Frequency Modulated (FM) signaling
It’s completely painless!
THE GREAT NEWS IS THAT THIS TREATMENT IS COVERED BY MEDICARE, MEDICAID, AND MOST INSURANCES!!
The number of treatments required varies from patient to patient, and can only be determined following an in-depth neurological and vascular examination. As long as you have less than 95% nerve damage, there is hope!
Aspen Medical begins by analyzing the extent of the nerve damage –a complimentary service for your friends and family. Each exam comprises a detailed sensory evaluation, extensive peripheral vascular testing, and comprehensive analysis of neuropathy findings.
Aspen Medical will be offering this free chronic pain and neuropathy severity evaluation will be available until October 31st 2022 Call (480) 274 3157 to make an appointment.
Cardinals game on Nov. 6. “Their parking pass was surprisingly cheap, and it was one that was relatively close to the stadi um. It’s pretty affordable.”
The Cardinals have disappointed fans this season with their 4-6 record and inconsistent play. The team sits third in the NFC West and has Cardinals general manager Steve Keim, coach Kliff Kings bury and quarterback Kyler Murray searching for answers.
“Hard Knocks In Season: The Arizona Cardinals” debuted Nov. 9 and has pro vided an inside look on how the team hopes to turn things around. Despite the underwhelming play, the 47th most valuable sports franchise in the world has continued to fill its stadium.
Chicago native and college student Janae Bradford attended her first Car dinals game in October when Arizona faced the New Orleans Saints.
Bradford and her friends arrived
an hour before the game and walked through the pedestrian underpass with “Arizona” engraved on one side and “Car dinals” etched on the other, which leads to State Farm Stadium’s south entrance. They entered the 2023 Super Bowl site to the sight of a red sea with black and gold sprinkled around.
“I knew it was going to be an over whelming experience just knowing how serious the fan base is,” Bradford said. “I didn’t want to put too much pressure on what the experience would be like. I just wanted to walk in and let the environ ment speak for itself.”
Bradford paid around $50 for 400-lev el tickets. Low ticket prices are one rea son that the Cardinals have the NFL’s least expensive experience for fans.
Arizona has the most affordable park ing tickets in the NFL ($20) and ranks fifth in lowest average ticket price ($84.83), fourth in hot dog price ($4.50) and ninth in beer cost ($8.13), according to the report.
As displayed in figure 1 above, the nerves are surrounded by diseased, withered blood vessels. A lack of sufficient nutrients means the nerves
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The holidays are here, which is hard to believe. Many may be wondering if it is still possible to get into your new home for the holidays.
The answer is yes, and you need to act quickly.
What would that look like for timing and could you celebrate in your new home?
With each passing day, that timeline gets tighter and tighter. Most of our real estate transactions have approximately a 30-day escrow period, if you have new financ ing. A cash transaction could close faster, though the seller would still need to have enough time to move out of the home.
Where would one start? The first step is to determine if you are paying cash or tak ing a loan. If you are paying cash, you will
need proof of the funds you plan to use for the purchase.
If you will be utilizing new financing, talking with a lender is step one. The
lender will pre-qualify you for your home purchase based on a few things including income and debt, credit score, job history, monies available for down payment and
closing costs, among other things.
The next step is to connect with a real es tate agent. If you have a referral to a good agent, definitely start there. If not, it’s good to interview a few agents and make sure you have a full time, professional agent who has worked in this type of market that we are currently experiencing.
This will help to ensure the agent will negotiate every penny on your behalf.
Our current market is ideal for negotiat ing for buyers. Here are a few things that can be negotiated on the buyer’s behalf, meaning the seller would pay for these for a buyer: a home warranty, HOA selling related fees, closing costs, monies to buy down the interest rate and repairs needed on the home.
While interest rates seem high com pared to earlier this year, home prices are falling. Coupled with a seller paying to buy
Are you confused about the status of new short-term rental laws and court rul ings? Hopefully the information below will help to clarify things. When dealing with regulations pertain ing to short term rentals, there are two primary sets of laws that may be applica ble to your situation: (1) those imposed by the government; and (2) those imposed by a homeowners association (“HOA”), if your property is situated within an HOA. In short, all short-term rentals are sub ject to restrictions or requirements im posed by the government – i.e., those im posed by the State of Arizona and/or your local government. The Arizona legislature recently passed new laws pertaining to
short term rentals and these new laws are outlined below.
Additionally, those with properties in an HOA may be subject to additional re strictions or requirements.
The recent Arizona Supreme Court de cision in Kalway v. Calabria Ranch limits the extent to which an HOA can amend Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (“CC&Rs”) to restrict short term rentals, but you should nonetheless understand that HOAs can restrict short term rentals in certain situations.
As to the governmental restrictions and requirements, cities and towns now have much more authority in regulating short term rentals. Specifically, new short-term rental legislation, which became effective September 24, 2022, provides, among other things:
• Short term rental owners must have liability insurance of at least
$500,000;
• Cities/towns can impose a civil penalty of up to $1,000 against an owner, if the owner fails to provide the required contact information to the city/town;
• Cities/towns can fine owners for violating their regulations. These fines can be up to $3,500 for three violations within twelve months;
• The Arizona Department of Reve nue can suspend an owner’s trans action privilege license if there are three violations of city/town regu lations within twelve months.
These are just a few of the new regula tions that became effective on September 24, 2022.
As to the restrictions and requirements that an HOA can impose on owners, the recent decision by the Arizona Supreme Court provides some guidance.
Specifically, the Court ruled that princi ples of notice and foreseeability limit an HOA’s ability to amend CC&Rs.
In other words, amendments to CC&Rs, including those pertaining to short term rentals, are permitted only if they are foreseeable refinements to existing obli gations contained in the CC&Rs. This rul ing is retroactive in nature and casts doubt on the ability of an HOA to ban short term rentals in communities with CC&Rs.
In sum, it is now more important than ever to understand the restrictions and regulations imposed by cities and towns. And, it is now more important than ever to understand whether, and to what extent, your HOA can restrict short term rentals.
If you have any questions, or would like a copy of the new laws, feel free to email Ahwatukee real estate lawyer Patrick MacQueen at Patrick@mandg lawgroup.com.
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down the interest rate for the buyer, and possibly the other items mentioned above, it is a great time to negotiate for buyers.
As of mid-November, Queen Creek had 593 homes listed as active and coming soon, 160 pending and 122 closed from mid-October to mid-November.
These numbers do not necessarily re flect sales from the builders in Queen Creek. If the builder listed the home for sale in the MLS, then it would be counted in these numbers. If not, we would need to account for those sales as well.
Clearly, there are more homes listed for sale than there are pending or closed in the last 30 days. This has been the trend in our local market since late spring.
Back to a new home for the holidays, yes this can happen. It’s important to get started quickly, work with a true profes sional who will navigate this market on your behalf.
This means a seller could get their home sold prior to the holidays and possibly be in their new home as well. Recognizing where the market is and what needs to be done to get the home sold is imperative. Accepting the market has changed,
This 3,000-square-foot house on W. Key Harbor Drive in Queen Creek, built in 1988, recently sold for $1.2 million. The five-bedroom, threebath two-story house includes a balcony overlooking a lake and numerous amenities. (Special to the Tribune)
prepping the home for sale, and pricing the home for where the market is head ed and not where it is currently, will help a seller get their home sold and on their way to a new home for the holidays.
In summary, to make this happen, get started right away. Then plan your
decorating.
Melanie Nemetz, the owner and founder of The Melanie Nemetz Team with Keller Williams Integrity First can be reached at (480) 221-3034, melanie@ fosteringre.com or fosteringre.com.
Contact Paul Maryniak at 480-898-5647 or pmaryniak @ TimesLocalMedia.com
Barro’s Pizza will host the 11th an nual Doran Barro Holiday Hunger Fight benefiting St. Mary’s Food Bank on Dec. 6.
All 46 locations across the Valley, in cluding 20415 E. Rittenhouse Road, Queen Creek, are donating all their pro ceeds for the day to help those in Arizona
facing hard times during the holidays. “This annual fundraiser, to help the hungry in our community, means so much to our family,” said co-owner Bruce Barro. “This time of year, it’s es pecially important to think about those that may be struggling so we encourage the whole community to come out and give back on this day .”
Last year, Barro’s Pizza raised more
than $330,000 for St. Mary’s Food Bank and Barro’s is hoping to set a record, this year. Every dollar donated equates to seven meals, so last year’s donation pro vided 2,310,000 meals .
Over the last ten years, Barro’s has raised over $2.1 million, equaling more than 14.7 million meals. The Doran Bar ro Holiday Hunger Fight has become St. Mary’s largest cause-marketing effort
of the year.
“Inflation is hitting Arizonans so hard, and families are turning to St. Mary’s for help in record numbers. The strain on the Food Bank is enormous,” St. Mary’s President and CEO Tom Kertis said.
The Doran Barro Holiday Hunger Fight is named after the matriarch of the Barro family, Doran Barro, who died in 2016.
Information: barrospizza.com
Dementia has touched Chandler resident Larry Calkins so deep ly that he recently published two books about the disease’s impact on him and his family.
“Memories and Forgetfulness” focuses on how the disease first claimed Calkins’ grandmother and then his father, Travis Calkins, and how their affliction affected him and his family.
He tells his story with “Letters to Sar ah” and “Failing Memory,” the first about his grandmother’s affliction.
“Both books describe the difficult tasks of caring for a person who is forgetful and provide anecdotes or short stories about caregiving, love, loss and grief as loved ones navigate with the person with this debilitating disease,” he said.
The museum is free 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays. At the presentation were, from left: Front: Midge Garrison, Keith Johanson, President, Kathy Sramek, Diane Wyatt; Back: Tracy Paulsen, Chapter Regent, Jacquelyn Scherrer. (Special to the Tribune)
He said he drafted the stories as “riv eting accounts of the interactions, told with humor, introspection and the seri ous business of finding the right mix of caregiving” and says the books are “a must read for those who find themselves as family members or those caring for patients with dementia.”
“I initially wrote both books for my self as I processed my own grief,” Calk ins said, “but I also wanted my family to
remember the remarkable people who raised me and I wanted to explain the struggles they had coping with this for midable disease.
“So, I wrote for family members so they could understand how I remembered the senior members of our family. Yet, other folks in other families also struggle with the care of loved ones inflicted with de mentia. My hope is that they also read the
AUTHOR from page 15
books and find a degree of peace or solace from my experiences and that they are not alone in their feelings of grief.”
“Letters to Sarah” is his father’s mother and the letters his dad wrote to his dad’s sister helping her manage the disease.
“Later in the book, my father discusses his forgetfulness and how he is dealing with the onset of his disease,” Calkins said. “The letters end when the disease steals his ability to write further.”
In “Failing Memory,” Calkins explores the relationship he had with his father from the moment he told him about his disease to his passing in 2009.
“In the end he is placed on hospice and I write about the agonizing decisions my family and I made,” Calkins said.
A Chandler resident since 2017, Calk ins said he worked in an environmental field in Oregon.
“I have been told the books are touching and emotional and that the reader some times needed to keep tissues handy,” he said. “I believe the books provide a glimpse into the day to day impacts of dementia on family members, caregivers and the person receiving care.”
Calkins said his father was 73 when diagnosed with dementia and he was 46.
“I was not a full-time caregiver for my father, but during the mid stages of his dementia, I gave my mother a periodic re prieve for a few weeks at a time,” he said.
The books are not Calkins’ first foray into writing.
He also has published “To Endure,” which he said was “inspired by my grandparents’ struggle through the Great Depression.
amazon.
or through Calkins. Write him at
Outside a nondescript building along Sossaman Drive at the Phoe nix-Mesa Gateway Airport last month, the sun shined while rain poured from an iron-gray sky inside the cavern ous structure.
On a powerful flight simulator that cost more than a real airplane, a flight student checked his instruments as the image of a propeller on a large wrap around screen began to hammer away in the rain and he prepared to take a digital plane into the storm.
Behind him, a flight instructor scruti nized a computer monitor.
Scenes like this are typical at the Uni versity of North Dakota Aerospace flight school at Gateway Airport as instructors stay busy training aviators amid a short age commercial plane pilots.
Americans’ wallets are being hit with inflation pressures, but after the pandem ic, they are still digging into their bank ac counts and traveling with a passion.
The good news is that Mesa’s numer ous flight schools are seeing an increase in people interested in learning to fly.
The bad news is, it will take time –years probably – before today’s newly certified pilots impact a travel industry hobbled by delays created by the pilot shortage.
Mesa’s two airports began as facili ties to train pilots for the U.S. and allies during World War II, and the tradition continues with at least 10 flight schools operating in the city today.
Local flight instructors say that even though the communities surrounding the airfields have transformed since World War II, the conditions that made Mesa good for training then still remain: there is wide-open airspace nearby, plenty of sunny days and lots of airports.
Rex Ginder, associate director of Phoe
nix flight operations for UND Aerospace, said the school’s Mesa campus now has the highest enrollment it’s ever had.
UND offers a six-semester collegiate program, and also recently added an ac celerated 12-to-13-month program to meet the high demand for commercial pilot training.
The school also partners with Chan dler-Gilbert Community College on an associate’s degree program that enables students to complete their degree with a private pilot’s license.
Matthew Johnston, president of Cali fornia Aeronautical University, which operates a school at Mesa’s Falcon Field,
said CAU is also seeing elevated interest in training. He thinks even more students would be interested with greater aware ness of the profession.
Pilot jobs are “plentiful, they’re por table worldwide and they’re profitable,” he said. “It’s a great industry to pursue.”
Johnston also told career seekers not to ignore training for aviation mechan ics, noting that a shortage of them is also grounding planes.
“When there’s a problem with an air craft, someone’s got to look at it,” he said.
Ginder agrees that jobs await students who stick with the programs.
He said UND currently has 100% job placement record with regional airlines for students who graduate and work as a flight instructor to help reach the re quired 1,500 hours of flight time to enter the pilot pool.
While flight schools are filling seats at a time when pilots are badly needed, Ginder and Johnston cautioned that alle viating the pilot and mechanic shortage is going to take many years.
Getting the commercial pilots license takes 250 hours of flight time, and that leaves a lot of flying left to reach the needed 1,500 hours.
Another bottleneck in the pilot pipeline is at the highest levels: the final classes pilots take with airlines to get checked out on specific aircraft and routes.
These sorts of final onboarding classes are generally taught by senior pilots, Ginder said, and the airlines lost a dis proportionate number of these seasoned pilots during the pandemic, offering buy outs as travel restrictions grounded the industry.
Ginder sees evidence of the loss of train ers as airlines are hiring pilots but telling them to stay in their current jobs until space in an onboarding class opens up.
Consequently, travelers should buckle in for full flights for some time.
Open enrollment for the 2023 ben efit year is now upon us, giving many people an opportunity to weigh their healthcare options for the year ahead. It’s not a simple process for anyone. Those with employer-provided ben efits are likely reviewing several health packages and noticing yet another in crease in their share of the bill. Others may search healthcare.gov for the right plan for their families, but the health in surance marketplace presents its own batch of issues.
In Arizona, many of the major insurers have exited the marketplace, limiting op tions for locals.
To make matters worse, most insur ance companies are posting double-digit rate increases, which hits the wallet hard. It’s all taking a toll on families’ bud gets – especially amid increasing costs of living – and many of us are experiencing sticker shock at high co-pays, deduct
ibles, coinsurance and premiums.
If you’re like most people, you may be tempted to choose your insurance with your pocketbook, but it’s impor tant to weigh cost alongside quality of care, access to trusted physicians, and even proximity – especially if you or a member of your family has a complex or chronic condition.
If that’s the case, choosing medical cov erage is one of the most important deci sions you will make all year.
Doing your homework is vital. When choosing your health plan for 2023, fol low these steps to ensure you pick the best plan for your family. Most impor tantly, remember you’ll have to live with your choice for an entire year, so take great care with this decision.
Make sure your provider is in-network. We often rely on trusted primary care physicians and, in many cases, dedicated specialists. Don’t take for granted that your doctors will be in-network, as in surance plans change every year. Make sure your providers accept the plan
you’re considering.
Be wary of narrow networks. Among the health insurance products for sale are highly limited plans that offer lower premiums in exchange for extremely narrow provider networks.
Narrow networks are a fine solution for many people, but they can be disas trous for people who experience a seri ous injury, illness, or have complex or chronic health needs. In fact, despite a low sticker price, picking a narrow net work may result in higher costs if a fam ily member needs to see a specialist or receive treatment outside the network.
Do the math. Low premiums may be tempting but the cost of health care goes well beyond the monthly payment. Be sure to consider your share of the costs for doctor visits and medications, too.
For some families, particularly those requiring specialist care or ongoing medical treatment, it may be more costeffective to purchase a plan with a higher monthly premium that covers a greater share of health care costs through a
lower deductible, co-insurance or copayment.
Consider the “extras.” Some plans have an option for a Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Savings Account (FSA). You can fund these pre-tax accounts to cov er healthcare-related expenses. Plans may also offer perks like Care Coordination Ser vices and Healthy Lifestyle benefits, which may be important considerations in your decision-making process, too.
If you have questions, ask. Contact your broker, human resources manager or plan provider with questions about your plan. You can also call Phoenix Children’s Family Financial Services at 602- 9332000. This free program helps families understand their coverage options and choose a plan that meets their needs.
Emilia Gomez, MD, is a pediatrician at Pediatrics of Queen Creek, which is part of Phoenix Children’s Care Network, Arizona’s only pediatric network that in cludes more than 1,175 pediatric primary care providers and specialists as well as Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
A side effect of the pilot shortage is the commercial airline industry has notched the highest “load factors” – the percent age of seats filled on the plane – in two decades in recent months.
Gateway Airport is no exception.
In August, the national average load factor nearly hit 90%, about 5% higher than a normal high of 85%.
Gateway President J. Brian O’Neill told the airport’s board of directors that Mesa has seen load factors rise above 90% this year.
Fuller planes have helped Gateway maintain revenue and continue serv ing record numbers of passengers even though airlines reduced their number of flights out of Mesa this summer.
In August, Gateway served a record 119,403 passengers for the month on 13% fewer flights than the previous year. But high load factors can become too much of a good thing.
“Ninety percent (load factor) is al most a disservice to the market because if there’s ever a disruption because of a mechanical or because of weather related cancellations, you don’t have any seats available to absorb those people and get them into the system,” O’Neill said.
He said the airport is interested in working with the airlines to bring load factors down – for passenger experience and for meeting the airport’s vision.
“Across the board, our ability to ex pand and offer new service certainly is hampered by a pilot shortage,” Gateway spokesman Ryan Smith said.
Ginder predicts that the future will al ways be bright for aviators.
The swift return of air travel following restrictions has driven home that “Amer icans are in love with the ability to get on a flight to travel,” he said. “So I think the training organizations like ours are go ing to continue to grow for the foresee able future.”
During the 1960s and ’70s, in “Anytown, USA” often on Thanksgiving afternoon, the ritual would be the same. After enjoying excessive amounts of turkey and dressing, families would head for Main Street and the hometown pomp and pageantry of a local parade.
The city’s downtown merchants associ ation, eager to get the Yuletide purchases started, would end the festivities in famil iar fashion. A certain “Jolly Old Elf” would emerge, minus the meteorological mys tery of Groundhog Day, to “officially” start something very important.
“And on the final float in this holiday parade, it’s none other than Santa Claus, signaling the start of the ‘Christmas Shop
That last page of the script, intoned by a public address announcer to the crowd onsite, or by a television broadcaster to the folks who stayed home to scarf down an extra piece of pumpkin pie, conveyed a none-too-subtle message: “Get downtown and get your Christmas shopping done!”
By the late 1980’s, America had gone to the mall, and in many of the “Anytowns,” the holiday parade had gone the way of the dodo bird. In its place, slick shop ping displays would herald seasonal shopping changes.
Merchandizers would make the jarring transition from jack-o-lanterns to St. Nick as quickly as the calendar turned from Oc tober to November.
What about Thanksgiving?
While it isn’t just for turkey, this historic holiday seems to get the short shrift from a merchandising and marketing perspective.
Even so, there’s no need to place an emergency call to the newly-founded Boutique PR Firm, “Late November Crisis Communications.”
Though major cities may find them selves in crisis, they still somehow man age to keep their massive Thanksgiving Day Parades marching. New York, Chicago and Detroit top the list.
Speaking of Detroit…we might not clas sify this as “fun and games,” but once again the struggling Lions will host an NFL con test. The most significant statistic is al ready in the books: this year marks the 72nd Thanksgiving that teams will take the field in Motown.
Motoring onward, Thanksgiving still tops the list for holiday travel in the USA, as the Department of Transportation re ports that venturing to a destination over 50 miles or more from home increases by 54 percent during Thanksgiving Weekend.
And it’s not just “over the river and through the woods.” It’s coast-to-coast and through the air, too. The Sunday after Thanksgiving earns the dubious distinc tion as the most crowded day to fly, hands down…er…wheels up.
So when all is said and done, Thanksgiv ing needs no marketing makeover.
It’s not dependent on a parade, a score, or a store.
With apologies to Dr. Seuss for this holi day verse variation, Thanksgiving is some thing a whole lot more.
In the newly constituted United States, George Washington called for Americans to “unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations…” and “to ren der our national government a blessing to all the people…and generally to grant unto
If you were going to chart the biggest heart breaks I suffered in my early twenties, at the top of the list was not being able to get a ticket to U2’s sold-out con cert at the old Orange Bowl in Miami. I’m only half kidding. We are talking about my then-favorite band, a group I worshiped with MAGA-like fervor, playing not 20 miles from my parents’ house.
Friends of mine from high school camped out at record stores across south Florida for a couple or three night. Tickets were 20 bucks with each buyer limited to six.
Much to my crushing disappointment, I was away at college and couldn’t connive someone to waste a few days of his or her life to sleep on concrete outside a BASS ticket outlet.
Records show that 54,111 people were in attendance that Thursday night in De cember 1987 when Bono, Edge, Larry and Adam performed 18 songs, starting with “Where The Streets Have No Name” and ending with the operatic “40,” the crowd in full throat chanting along.
I feel like I’ve spoken to all 54,000 at tendees over the past 35 years. They all swear it was the apex of their concert-go ing lives.
I’m pretty sure Bono invited everyone back to the tour bus afterward for Dom Perignon and caviar, plus free T-shirts and autographs. Me, I was working a double at Bennigan’s in Tallahassee.
This is how I know with great certain ty that every Valley resident – and every American – who didn’t get tickets to Tay lor Swift’s upcoming March 2023 concerts at Glendale’s State Farm Stadium will sur vive this crushing blow.
Does it suck for you? Yep.
But with time comes perspective and real-life losses that actually matter. You’ll eventually realize how stupid the kerfuffle around Ticketmaster flubbing the pre-sale to “The Eras” tour sounds to people not suffering from a classic case of “first world problems.”
I have checked the Bill of Rights. No where are you guaranteed a spot in a digi tal line to see your favorite performer at a reasonable price.
In fact, given that we live in a state of seven million people and that the Glendale venue holds about 63,000 people, the laws of probability and supply and demand dic tate that you never really had a chance.
Dare I echo Taylor herself and suggest that you “shake it off, shake it off?”
In the aftermath of the ticket sale gone wrong, we have learned that Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation are be ing probed by the U.S. Department of Jus tice and the attorneys general of Nevada,
Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
Predictably, politicians also weighed in, including Minnesota Sen. Amy Klo buchar, who tutted-tutted her “serious concerns about the state of competition in the ticketing industry and its harmful impact on consumers” and PR-hound Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who tweeted “Ticketmaster is a monopoly, its merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned in.”
Taylor herself described it as “excruciat ing for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.”
In all, 2.4 million Swifties were able to purchase tickets last week by pushing a few buttons – no sleeping bags in a park ing lot necessary. The rest of you tortured souls now have two options.
You can go to Stubhub, where a nose bleed seat currently starts at about 450
Reading Foghorn Leghorn’s, er, J.D. Hay worth’s latest column, I thought of the old commercial line, “where’s the beef?”
J.D., in his usual bloviating fashion, eventually gets around to his purpose: something fishy happened with the gov
ernor’s race.
His candidate, the one he describes as a ”rising star,” lost in a close one. J.D.smells a rat. The tabulating machine problem, the fact the Hobbs didn’t recuse herself, add up to another rigged election.
Yet J.D. provides zero proof of either voter fraud or suppression. And he
May it always be celebrated and ob served…in “Everytown, USA.”
doesn’t explain how while Lake was crushed in Maricopa County, Rep. Dave Schweikert won.
Why give him a victory if the vote was rigged? J.D. doesn’t say. Nor does he say why a Republican Recorder and a Repub lican Board of Supervisors conspired to elect a Democrat. Nor does he explain
why the AG election is so close. Nor does he explain why other counties gave Hobbs a majority of the vote.
No, J.D. gives readers no beef. But J.D. does get one thing right: we know B.S. when we see it. And he has made a career of slinging it.
-Mike McClellanhow much this meant, and how silly it all seems.
all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.”
Washington’s Proclamation assigned Thursday, Nov. 26, 1789 as our nation’s first “official” Thanksgiving Day, but much earlier observances had been cel ebrated in Colonial America for well over a century.
Now, over two centuries since that first Presidential Proclamation, we gather to gether again.
Thanksgiving is not just a holiday…it’s a call to prayer for believers; a time for fam ilies and friends to gather for fellowship; and a day of recognition and reflection un dergirded with a spirit of gratitude.
bucks and field level seats are being resold for as much as $4,000. Or you can learn to deal with heartbreak.
One day you’ll look back and laugh at
But until then, it’s like Taylor writes about a broken heart in “Sad Beautiful Tragic” – “time is taking its sweet time erasing you.”
E-mail: pmaryniak@timeslocalmedia.com
Queen Creek Tribune welcomes letters that express readers’ opinion on current topics. Letters must include the writer’s full name, address (including city) and telephone number. Queen Creek Tribune will print the writer’s name and city of residence only. Letters without the requisite identifying information will not be published. Letters are published in the order received, and they are subject to editing. Queen Creek Tribune will not publish consumer complaints, form letters, clippings from other publications or poetry. Letters’ authors, not Queen Creek Tribune, are responsible for the “facts” presented in letters.
1 Cigna will reduce your monthly Medicare Part B premium by $100.
2 Benefits, features and/or devices vary by plan/service area. Limitations, exclusions, and restrictions may apply. All Cigna products and services are provided exclusively by or through operating subsidiaries of Cigna Corporation. The Cigna name, logos, and other Cigna marks are owned by Cigna Intellectual Property, Inc. Benefits, features and/or devices vary by plan/service area. Limitations, exclusions, and restrictions may apply. Contact the plan for more information. This information is not a complete description of benefits, which vary by individual plan. You must live in the plan’s service area. Call 1-888-284-0268 (TTY 711) for more information. Cigna is contracted with Medicare for PDP plans,
Anne Montgomery started her offi ciating journey over 40 years ago. She officiated football, hockey and baseball among other sports before retir ing in 2019.
To sustain a four-decade spanning ca reer is rare. To do it as a woman is even rarer. The Arizona Interscholastic Associ ation said most officials quit around the three-year mark, and the most common answer to why is verbal abuse from fans and parents. One of the problems isn’t that it’s happening – it’s getting worse.
The AIA asked high schools to schedule one varsity football game on a Thursday to help alleviate the number of games played on Fridays because of the shortage of offi cials as more quit or retire to avoid verbal abuse from fans, coaches or players.
“The number one concern is abuse, fan abuse in particular,” AIA director of athlet ics and officials Tyler Cerimeli said. “It’s very difficult to get people to come out and work when half the people there ar en’t going to like you very much.”
Montgomery noticed how the harass ment and bullying spread to the internet for perceived missed or inaccurate calls.
“Officials are expected to be perfect all the time and we’re not,” Montgomery said. “It used to be that you’d make a bad call and everyone screams. I’ve been spit on; I’ve had to have police escorts to my car. But today, it’s so much worse because people put it on the internet. It’s not just that one moment in time, it’s endless.”
The harassment caused many officials to leave a thankless job that only gets worse as more people use social media to attack them, according to Cerimeli, who says he hears this sentiment during exit interviews with his officials.
The number of officials across the coun try continues to further down. Arizona, which had an uptick in the number of ref erees in 2021, still remains below AIA’s
Working as a high school official can be a lonely business. The verbal abuse by fans is one reason there is a shortage in Arizona and why the AIA has asked foot ball teams to play at least one Thurs day night game. (File Photo) desired goal.
Mountain View played its varsity game against Desert Mountain on a Thursday and school Athletic Director Joseph Good man said he hoped. that the message was understood by “everybody that we do our part as a school, as fans, as a team that our officials feel valued and respected.”
The AIA has tried to focus more on re tention than recruitment in recent years.
For recruitment, the association asks each school to provide one male and one female graduating senior that could be a fit. The AIA is also working with schools in the Dysart Unified School District to offer an officiating elective class that high school students can take to get them pre pared for a career in officiating.
“If you get into officiating, your odds of making it as a professional official are high er than a player’s odds of making it as a professional athlete,” Cerimeli said. “The odds of making a career out of it if you get in early enough are there, it’s just a matter of adjusting to the environment. We have a countless number of officials working at the Division I level, (at) the professional level that came up from the AIA ecosystem.”
A challenge is the treatment of wom en. Throughout her career, Montgom ery had been told by referees that crews
with women don’t get the opportunities that other crews get.
“Twenty-five years ago, I kept getting thrown off officiating crews,” said Montgomery, who became a referee so she could pick her own officiating crew. “The men were really hon est with me. They said, ‘We aren’t going to get any big games with you on our crew because you’re a woman.’ And I hated them for it, but they were right. … I would like to tell you that 40 years later it was easier for me to be an official, but it wasn’t.”
This issue extends beyond AIA and high school, according to Todd Sergi, the Ari zona State Referee Administrator for U.S. Soccer who works closely with the Arizo na Soccer Association.
His job includes trainings, instruction,
development and reports on officials in the state. Posted at the top of the website, azref.com, is a prompt to submit a report on referee abuse.
“We had a young lady on a match in a tournament that the parents were be rating during the match. The director of coaching came on the field of play and verbally abused her (and) brought her to tears,” Sergi said. “When we got the video and the report, it stirred something in us. We said we need to take more of an active role in getting information from our refer ees in all events.”
Referees, parents, coaches and players can file reports on verbal abuse so the association can track the instances and make better decisions on how to address each case. In its first year in use in 2021, the association received 62 cases of ref eree abuse.
The referee issue is two-fold: There ar en’t enough people and the majority of them are over 60.
“Most officials when they come out for the first time, they were around sports, their kids were in high school, their kids went to college (now) they’re looking for something to do,” Cerimeli said. “They tend to skew older or middle-aged.”
Meanwhile, schools are trying to encour age more sportsmanship from the fans.
The AIA has a sportsmanship and eth ics committee that has a sportsmanship reporting process where officials can rate sportsmanship from players, fans and coaches. Athletic directors can log on and see how their school and sports programs are doing.
There is no simple solution, but Ser gi, Goodman, Montgomery and Cerimeli agree that refs need to be treated better if youth sports are to continue.
After an accomplished broadcasting career, including on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” Anne Montgomery worked as a high school official in Arizona. (Photo
“Right now, the environment is continu ing to get worse,” Cerimeli said. “That is something else we have focused on in the past couple of years, trying to turn around sportsmanship, trying to fix those issues and make officiating more appealing.”
The Hale Centre Theatre in down town Gilbert will start its annual presentation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” on Friday, Dec. 1.
“Since receiving the award for Best Christmas Production in Arizona, audi ences have been lining up in Gilbert to see Scrooge and his ghostly visitors,” a theater release said.
“It is their 20th season and it has be come a family tradition for audiences and a must-see every holiday season, with each year bringing a little something different.”
Director David Hale Dietlein is present ing two casts designated “Red” and “Green.”
The Red cast features seasoned actor Tim Dietlein as Ebenezer Scrooge and the Green cast is headed by local actor Rob Stuart. Both actors are reprising their roles from previous years.
The Hale family tradition of presenting “A Christmas Carol” began with Ruth and Nathan Hale, who opened their first the ater in Glendale, California.
In 1965 the Hales and the Dietleins staged their first production of “A Christmas Car ol,” and Hale operators say they established “a legacy that flourishes to this day.
Director and theater owner David Dietle in has received numerous awards for his artistic achievements and has directed ev
An East Valley resident and her band will give a special concert Dec. 3 at the Musical Instrument Museum.
Carmela Ramirez and her band, Carmela y Más, returns for the fourth time to the Phoenix theater for a family-friendly show entitled “A Latin Holiday Extravaganza.”
This concert will be culturally rich with festive cheer, featuring the Valley’s most-recognized Latin artists.
Ramirez, an Ahwatukee resident and the group’s vocalist, fronts this award-win ning band that is known for salsa, meren gue, cha cha, cumbia and classic Latin
jazz. The nine-piece Carmela y Más deliv ers a kaleidoscope of Latin/Afro-Cuban rhythms in electrifying performances that have graced many stages across the Valley and internationally.
“It is very exciting to return to the Mu sical Instrument Museum,” Ramirez said.
“The cast is excited to perform a wonder ful mix of Latin music and dance with a bit of holiday magic. Put some sizzle in your holidays and come spend this evening with us! We’ll present our Latino heritage with music, dance and holiday traditions that will get you on your feet.”
ery production of “A Christmas Carol” since he opened the Gilbert theater in 2003.
The annual holiday classic is a musical version of Dickens’ tale of the Christmas ghosts, who visit the thoroughly unpleas ant Ebenezer Scrooge to show him the error of his ways. The spirits transform
Ebenezer’s life, serving to remind us that it is never too late to change for the better.
“It’s a message of hope and renewal that holds a special place in our hearts every holiday season,” the release stated, prom ising a “stunning production (that) is a visual and sensory delight, featuring local talent of singers, dancers and actors: with “soaring music, special effects, stunning costumes and sets.”
The production runs at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Dec.1-26 with matinees on Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
The Hale is located at 50 W. Page Ave. in Gilbert’s Heritage District, across the street from the Gilbert Water Tower Park. Several restaurants and free parking are located nearby.
Tickets range from $42 to $60 for adults, $28 to $45 for youth. Group discounts for 10 or more tickets are available at $35 on showings through Dec. 14.
The shows sell out quickly, so purchase your tickets by calling the box office at 480-497-1181 or by visiting the theater’s website at HaleTheatreArizona.com.
Carmela Ramirez and her band, Carmela y Más, headline the Latin Holiday Extravaganza at the Musical Instrument Museum Dec. 3. (Courtesy of Carmela Ramirez)
Two East Valley residents have titles on the Grand Canyon University Worship Arts Program’s seventh al bum, “Canyon Worship 2022.
All 11 new songs which were written and performed by GCU students and re corded in the its state-of-the-art record ing studio.
Eric Johnson, GCU recording studio manager, called the album “an eclectic blend of praise and introspection marked by thought-provoking ideas and passion ate worship for our Creator.”
Colter Bonaroti of Gibert helped write and record the song “Sometimes” and “The Real Thing” along with three other students.
Nicole Swartz of Mesa wrote and re corded the song “Dry Bones.”
Worship Arts Director Randall Downs said all the songs “speak to the goodness and faithfulness of God.”
The album is available for streaming on Apple Music, Spotify and Amazon Music.
Bonaroti, a Highland High School alum nus and GCU senior, has played piano for 13 years, drumset for eight and has been singing and writing songs for four years.
“I got into music when I started learning
RAMIREZ from page 24
Joining Carmela y Más will be Tem pe-based all-female Mariachi group Mari achi Pasión, Fiesta Mexicana Dance Com pany, Brenda Del Rio Salsa Dance Co. and JoseCarlos Justiz.
Mariachi Pasión has performed its ma jestic music for thousands in the Valley and beyond. Fiesta Mexicana Dance Com pany, the Official Folkloric Dance Company of the City of Phoenix, performs beautiful Ballet Folklorico that celebrates tradition al folk dances of Mexico.
Ramirez, an award-winning vocalist, has a long history of moving audiences with a sultry and soulful voice that delivers heartfelt passion of lyrics and drives the
piano at 8 years old and became fascinat ed by playing piano by ear without real izing perfect pitch was something special until later in life,” he said.
He said he wrote his song for the al bum with his fellow students to show “the Christ-centered fellowship we had found with one another, as well as many other awesome people who have shown
band into exciting musical journeys.
For decades, she also has been among the most influential producers in the Valley.
“As a performing artist, I have followed the path of many before me who have used performance platforms not only to enter tain, but to communicate,” Ramirez said.
She lends her talents to various commu nity-outreach projects, such as arts and culture, education, health, civics, social justice and special needs.
“If I can open doors of communication through music performance or production, then I have used my talents well,” she said.
Carmela y Más has performed for hun dreds of night clubs, concerts and festivals throughout the greater Phoenix area and internationally.
us that freedom comes through full sur render to Jesus.
“We aren’t meant to write our own sto ry, but rather listen to the incredible roles God has in store for us to play in His story,” said Bonaroti, who hopes to join a church worship team after graduation.
Swartz, who was homeschooled until college, is also a GCU senior and attri
It was featured in concert at the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Wash ington, D.C., the 100th anniversary of the Himeji Castle in Japan and as headliner for the Puerto Peñasco Latin Jazz Festival.
The band has shared the stage with many major recording artists, including Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Arturo San doval, Nestor Torres and Claudio Roditi.
As a producer, Ramirez has created a multitude of concerts, community fes tivals, arts and education projects and mentored youth in the arts. Believing that community thrives in a healthy artistic en vironment, she uses her platform to build bridges of communication.
Her community work has gained awards, such as Valle Del Sol “Profiles of Success,”
butes her interest in music to her parents, who she said “are both incredibly accom plished musicians.”
She started learning piano at age 5 and said she has “always enjoyed the community aspect of music because of its deep connection to family and being at home.”
“College is when I really started to write music and it has been an incredible jour ney,” said Swartz, who also plays guitar.
She said her son is “a prayer in my life and my family’s life that God would do a new work and bring breakthrough.
“I knew the season of work I was in was part of a great harvest in the season I am in now,” she said. “God was faithful to me every step of my journey through college and I am beyond grateful for how he has provided for me and made me new.
“’Dry Bones’ in many ways is a plea to God, but it is also a declaration of God’s character,” she added. “When we pray we know God has already come through and will provide for us.”
A worship leader at One Life Church, Nicole also had a song on last year’s GCU Worship Program album titled “In the Waiting.”
Information: gcu.edu.
City of Phoenix Excellence Awards, NAACP Education Excellence Award and Phoenix Elementary Schools “Star Mentor.”
Ramirez has been inducted into the Raul H. Castro Institute as an “Arizona Trail blazer” and nominated twice for the Gabe Zimmerman Award for Public Service.
What: A Latin Holiday Extravaganza
Where: Musical Instrument Museum Theater, 4725 E. Mayo Blvd., Phoenix
When: 8 p.m. Dec. 3
Cost: Reserved Seating: $28.50, $33.50, $38.50 at mim.org/concerts/ upcoming-concerts/ Info: carmelaramirez.com.
This season I finally had a chance to scratch one off of my bucket list. I’ve always wanted to visit New England in the fall. I had always heard that the changing of the leaves is spectacu lar, and I wanted to be there during the peak week. (Me and everyone else on the planet, I discovered!)
My trip to Woodstock, Vermont was worth the trip, and while there, I wanted to immerse myself in the New England food scene. That brings me to maple syrup. I couldn’t get enough of it, whether it was on my breakfast pancakes, a delicious ham slathered in a Vermont maple glaze or those iconic maple leaf-shaped candies.
I came home with plenty of bottles of syrup which came in handy for this scrumptious holiday maple pecan pie. This time of the year, while pumpkin pie
Ingredients for Dough for single-crust pie (9 inches)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 6 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
• 3 tablespoons Crisco shortening, cut into small pieces
• 3 tablespoons ice water
• 1 tablespoons white vinegar
Directions:
Make the dough. In a food processor, blend together the flour, sugar and salt. Add butter and shortening and pulse until mixture resem bles coarse meal. Drizzle water and vinegar over mixture.
Process just until moist clumps form adding more water, a little at a time, if dough is too dry. Form into a ball, cover in plastic wrap and chill for one hour.
When dough has chilled, preheat oven to 375
is the go-to, pecan pie is right up there in popularity, and this version is definitely holiday worthy.
It starts with a light and flakey crust, the perfect bed for a sweet, nutty and maple syrupy filling. So just in case searching for perfect holiday pies is on your bucket list, this one will not disappoint!.
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups pecan halves
• Whipped cream, optional
degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to a 1/8-in.-thick circle; transfer to a 9-in. pie plate. Trim crust to 1/2 in. beyond rim of plate; flute edge. Refrigerate while preparing filling.
In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until smooth. Add maple syrup, butter, vanilla, salt and pecans. Pour into crust.
Bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 30-40 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. If desired, top with whipped cream to serve.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
