Join the Annual SBCO Food Drive to Prevent Hunger
Food delivered to the MountainView Clubhouse parking lot is received by an army of volunteers who check the expiration dates and then sort, box, and load them on trucks for delivery to Tri-Community Food Bank in Mammoth.
The SaddleBrooke Ranch Adopt-a-Family volunteers included (left to right) Natacha Hlebechuk, Karen Adamson, Shelley Swircek, Chris Swircek, Susan Hastings, Arlene Tongas, and Myriam Barthole.
Nancy McCluskey-Moore
The 26th annual SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) Food Drive will gather donations of food and money to support the Tri-Community Food Bank (TCFB) based in Mammoth. TCFB serves needy families living in Mammoth, San Manuel, Oracle, and the Dudleyville/Aravaipa areas.
Our donations helped to provide bi-monthly emergency food boxes to an unduplicated count of 530 households (1,565 people) for the past calendar year. TCFB meets a real need in the Tri-Community area, where 20% of households live below the poverty level and 10% are below 50% of the poverty level. Recent increases in the cost of gasoline, food, and utilities have a significant impact on families already struggling to make ends meet.
SBCO will be collecting monetary contributions online or with checks from March 4 through 16. Online donations can be made at the SBCO website: community-outreach.org.
Checks, made payable to SaddleBrooke Community Outreach, can be delivered to Food Drive Unit Captains or mailed/hand-delivered to the SBCO office at 63675 E. SaddleBrooke Blvd, Suite L., Tucson, AZ 85739 (in the SaddleBrooke business complex). Office hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
All monetary donations go directly to grocery purchases and related expenses. SBCO and TCFB are both all-volunteer organizations and are IRS 501(c)(3) and Arizona nonprofit charitable organizations, so donations made to these organizations are tax deductible.
On Saturday, March 16, food donations need to be placed at the curb for pick up by 8 a.m. These donations will be taken to the MountainView Clubhouse parking lot for sorting, boxing, and delivery to TCFB.
If you live in SaddleBrooke and would like to volunteer for the Food Drive, please contact Andrea Stephens at [email protected]. SaddleBrooke Ranch residents should contact Betty Ryan at [email protected].
Annual Party Celebrates SBCO Scholarship Students
Makaiah Gorham, who is receiving an SBCO scholarship for his undergraduate studies at BYU-Hawaii, told pizza party attendees about his college experiences and goals for the future.
Nancy McCluskey-Moore
Every December the SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) education committee invites its college scholarship students and their guests to a pizza party. The event, held at Kids’ Closet in Mammoth, is an opportunity for SBCO to recognize the students’ academic achievements and for the students to visit with their education committee liaisons and other students. The event is timed to coincide with the students’ winter break when many come home to visit family for the holidays.
This year, the party was attended by 32 students, approximately one-third of the students currently under scholarship. About 80 people, including students’ guests, members of the SBCO education committee along with their spouses, and scholarship endowment fund donors, joined in the gathering. In attendance was scholarship recipient Makaiah Gorham, a senior at Brigham Young University (BYU)-Hawaii, who talked about his college experiences and goals for the future. Kathie Marshall, a member of the SBCO education committee spoke on behalf of Angelita Mendibles, a student for whom she serves as a liaison. Angelita, who is attending the Fashion Institute and School of Design in Los Angeles for a degree in graphic design, was unable to attend the event due to illness.
In recognition of their academic achievements, SBCO gave each scholarship student attending the pizza party a Walmart gift card.
SBCO Home Tour Tickets Available on February 26
Last year’s SBCO Home Tour included the fully remodeled home of Seana and Brian Kobak. (Photo by Kenya Glenn/K.C. Creative Designs)
Nancy McCluskey-Moore
Of course, you want to see what your neighbors have done to improve traffic flow, expand storage options, create a space for guests, or simply modernize and beautify their homes! Who wouldn’t want to see extensive changes as well as budget-friendly transformations? The SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) remodeled home tour of six houses is designed to show you changes that may inspire your own home improvements.
This event helps SBCO inform the SaddleBrooke and SaddleBrooke Ranch communities about its food, clothing, enrichment, and educational programs for children in nearby communities. It also helps SBCO recruit the volunteers needed to make these programs work. Tour attendees can choose between a morning (9 a.m. to noon) or afternoon (1 to 4 p.m.) tour on Saturday, March 23. During those three hours, you’ll be able to visit all of the homes. In addition to viewing the latest interior design, you’ll see smart bathroom and kitchen makeovers, casita additions, revised floor plans, and renovated outdoor living spaces.
Tickets for this much-anticipated annual event go on sale online on Monday, Feb. 26 at community-outreach.org. In-person sales, check or cash only, begin at 9 a.m. on Monday, March 4, in the SBCO office, Suite L, in the SaddleBrooke Business Center on SaddleBrooke Blvd. With two tour times, 600 tickets will be available. When tickets are purchased, buyers will need to indicate which showing (morning or afternoon) they will attend. Tickets cost $20 per person and are sold only to SaddleBrooke and SaddleBrooke Ranch residents.
Call your friends and make plans before the tickets sell out!
If you would like to serve as a docent in one of the 2023 tour homes for the morning or afternoon session, please contact Lisa Urban at [email protected]. Docents receive free admission to the tour.
SaddleBrooke Ranch Residents Open Their Hearts to Oracle Kids
Gifts for 178 children in Oracle were wrapped, bagged, and then stored in Larry Schweitzer’s garage prior to delivery to Mountain Vista School.
Kim Schweitzer and Myriam Barthole, Adopt-A-Family Co-Chairs
The spirit of giving is alive and well in Saddlebrooke Ranch!
When we received the wish lists from Lydia of the Mountain Vista School in Oracle containing 161 students and their holiday wishes, we wondered if we were going to be able to get our neighbors to “adopt” them all. We just didn’t know how to gauge the success of this effort, because we have not had an “Angel Tree” at the Ranch for the past three years, due to COVID.
Well, not only did our neighbors adopt the initial 161 kids, but we had to request more angels at the last minute from the school!
SaddleBrooke Ranch residents came through in a big way! We were able to fulfill the holiday wishes of a total of 178 kids! Thank you all for your generosity.
We want to thank Alicia Jungclaus for donating the beautiful tabletop tree, and Catherine Nasca for decorating it in a “sweet and luscious” Candyland theme. Thank you to Larry Schweitzer for letting us mess up his garage to store the gifts!
We could not have made the wishes of 178 kids come true without a great team of volunteers: Karen Adamson, Pat Albu, Annie Anderson, Dan Cain, Mina Carlson, Susan Hastings, Natacha Hlebechuk, Andrea and Scott Hopkins, Bob Lamar, Lisa Leslie, Catherine Nasca, Laura Pauli, Shelly and Chris Swircek, Arlene and Harry Tonges, Diane Vulcan, and Marina and Andy Waddell.
We also want to thank the Mountain Vista School professional staff: Shannon Soule, principal; Lydia Smith, front office staff; Barbara Frost, office secretary; Trina Duarte, special education paraprofessional; Claude Huffman, Billy Bemis, and Carlos Covarrubias, school maintenance workers; and Pete Lewis, Kids Closet driver.
Thank you all for your hard work and dedication to the children of Oracle!
Hope to see you next year.