SaddleBrooke Communities Made 2025 SBCO Food Drive a Great Success!

Nancy McCluskey-Moore

The compassionate residents of SaddleBrooke and SaddleBrooke Ranch made this year’s Annual SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) Food Drive a great success. The Food Drive raised a total of $157,650 and approximately 14,000 pounds of food. This is a great result and the families assisted by the Tri-Community Food Bank (TCFB), as well as its Board of Directors and volunteers, are deeply grateful for this outpouring of support.

Thanks to your continued generosity, the TCFB provided almost 5,000 food boxes to 549 households, totaling 1,620 individuals in 2025.

Speaking on behalf of the TCFB Executive Board, Tom Jensen said, “SaddleBrooke Community Outreach is a wonderful partner of the food bank. We are so fortunate to have their support along with that of the SaddleBrooke and SaddleBrooke Ranch communities. This year’s food drive has set the TCFB up for another successful year. Our deepest gratitude and thanks to all who participated.”

The Food Drive accepted food donations and monetary contributions made online or with checks. Volunteers from SaddleBrooke, SaddleBrooke Ranch, Sunrise Rotary, Rotary Club of SaddleBrooke, TCFB, and Teen Closet students enjoyed the warm weather and camaraderie of sorting through the food donations, boxing and loading them on trucks, and unloading the donations at TCFB.

All monetary contributions will go directly to grocery purchases and related expenses. Both SBCO and TCFB are all-volunteer organizations and IRS 501(c)(3) and Arizona nonprofit charitable organizations, so donations made to these organizations are tax deductible.

SBCO and TCFB thank the many SaddleBrooke Ranch and SaddleBrooke residents who made such a great difference in the lives of those in need, especially the SaddleBrooke Ranch Unit Food Drive Captains.

Food Drive Captains—Units and Names: 1 Donna and Tom Opsatnick, 2 Dale Farland, 3 Sue Fetters, 4A Deb Sandin, 4B Jeanne Bianchini, 6 Lisa Richards, 7 Amy Ruff, Tina Taylor, and Karen Wasler, 8A Pam Blaess, 8B Donna Pedota, 9A Debra VanTassel, 9B Cyndy Pylkka, 10 Ross and Lisa Horton, 14A Cassie Olson, 14B Joann Roberts, 15 John Green, 16 Amanda Blood, 17 Anthony Signorelli, 18A Marie Mantoura, 18B Jim and Toni Selk, 18C Waters Davis, 19 Emily Allen Carr, 21A Julie Dzekute, 22B Margaret (Mags) Johnson, 46A Barry and Mary Milner, 46B Paula Rogers.

Signage and Drivers: Bob Wample helped with putting up signs around the community and collecting them from the unit captains. And our volunteer truck drivers delivered food donations to the MountainView Clubhouse parking lot in SaddleBrooke for sorting: Kyle Cooper, Bob Townsend, Janet Baker, Patrick Fancher, Dawn Swanlaw, Pam Steube, Amanda Kaminski, Deb Sandin, Bill Mikesell, Carol Fielding.

A big thanks to all of the above volunteers who helped make this year’s food drive such a huge success.

SBCO Honors Camille Esterman as Volunteer of the Year

Nancy McCluskey-Moore

Sometimes, good fortune and perfect timing is with us. Such was the case for SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) in 2017 when Anne Everett, its long-time treasurer, needed to resign from her position to focus more time on her work as a real estate agent. At the same time, Camille Esterman and her husband, Joe, had just moved to SaddleBrooke Ranch. Steve Groth, then president of SBCO and a Ranch resident, quickly recruited her to fill the vacancy. It was a good fit: Camille is a Certified Public Accountant who had also served part-time on the accounting faculty at the College of DuPage and Northern Illinois University.

Despite having had only two months to unpack boxes following a move from the Chicago, Ill., area, Camille agreed to take on the task. She had researched SBCO and was impressed by its mission of assisting local children from pre-K through college through its programs to feed, clothe, provide enrichment activities and post-high school scholarships. She says, “Education is the key to helping kids take steps toward a better future.”

Camille shadowed Anne and became her “defacto” assistant treasurer. In 2018 she was elected treasurer and served in this position through 2024. After Joe’s passing, Camille was ready to step away from the treasurer position and in the fall of 2025 actively helped with the transition to a new financial management team.

Camille and Joe chose to retire in Arizona after taking trips with friends rafting the Grand Canyon, hiking around the state, and touring the sights in and around Tucson. And they continued to take many trips near and far after they landed in SaddleBrooke Ranch. But Camille still found time, in addition to her duties as treasurer, to volunteer with SBCO. She helped with the annual Food Drive and Teen Closet, attended scholarship events, served on committees, helped inventory clothing at Kids’ Closet, assisted the Scholarship Endowment committee, and “helped whenever my financial skills were needed.”

As an SBCO volunteer, Camille particularly enjoyed talking with Teen Closet students who had received assistance from SBCO for many years, starting with Kids’ Closet while in kindergarten. “Receiving their thanks and knowing, as they went off to college, that we had helped change their lives was really gratifying,” she said. “SBCO has been an opportunity for me to give back and to pay forward using my skills.”

What would Camille tell others who are considering becoming an SBCO volunteer? “It’s a great opportunity to see the organization’s impact. It’s very visible in the lives of these kids. And volunteering with SBCO is a chance to meet and work along-side like-minded, generous people.”

Jo Sauvageau Receives SBCO Lifetime Achievement Award

Nancy McCluskey-Moore

SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) recognizes the unique contribution of those volunteers who have provided 20 years of service to the organization with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Jo Sauvageau reached this milestone during SBCO’s 2025-26 fiscal year. SBCO deeply appreciates the difference long-time volunteers make in terms of their experience, reliability, and advocacy for our mission. While the award’s name might imply that the honoree has ended or is nearing the end of his or her service with SBCO, this is not the case—especially for Jo.

During the past two decades Jo has been a steadfast SBCO volunteer, while also running her own interior design and remodeling project management business. And although she has stepped back from most of her design projects, she hasn’t cut back on her work as a volunteer.

Over the past 20 years Jo has been a clothing buyer for Kids’ Closet. This has involved estimating needed inventory, shopping at shows in Las Vegas and online, and resolving last–minute shortages when vendors fail to deliver or student numbers surge. During the past couple of years, she has also become part of the warehouse team, helping to replenish clothing bins in the Kids’ Closet “shopping” area and keeping an eye on potential shortfalls. In addition to her work with Kids’ Closet, Jo has worked on the annual SBCO Food Drive and served as a docent for the annual Home Tour.

Since October 2022, Jo has volunteered two days a week in the clothing department of the Golden Goose Thrift Shop and helps to inspect and price rugs on Friday mornings. In December 2023 she began serving as the SBCO representative on the Golden Goose’s board of directors. As such, she helps ensure that SBCO and IMPACT of Southern Arizona (the nonprofits that share the Golden Goose’s proceeds) are equally represented in the board’s decisions. As of July 1 of this year, she will begin a two-year term as the president of the board.

Jo’s Lifetime Achievement Award is well-deserved. But it is merely a milestone in her long career as a volunteer. Far from hanging up her roller skates, she’s just getting started.

Volunteers unloaded the trucks and sorted the donations by expiration date and food type. Food was then delivered to the appropriate table for boxing.

Richard Mochel Named SBCO Receptionist of the Year

Kimberley Prochnau

Each year SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) recognizes the special efforts of one of the receptionists working in our office. Richard (Dick) Mochel has been honored as our Receptionist of Year for 2025-26. Dick and Pat, his wife of 59 years, started snowbirding in Arizona in 1999, but did not make a permanent move to SaddleBrooke until 2019. Up until then and with the exception of his military service, Richard lived his entire life in Downers Grove, Ill., a western suburb of Chicago. After graduation from high school, he attended the University of Illinois, graduating with a finance degree in 1963.

Dick left Downers Grove for military service from 1964-66. He was stationed in the military intelligence unit in Frankfurt, Germany. He claims that his job was limited to issuing paychecks to the employees, but who knows? Happy to return to his hometown after his tour of duty ended, he was even happier when his brother introduced him to his nephew’s cute fifth-grade teacher, Pat!

After returning to Downers Grove and marrying Pat, the couple had two children, Kimberly and David, followed by four grandsons. In addition to his business (he was an Independent insurance agent) and his busy life as a husband and father, he was involved with the Chamber of Commerce and Lions Club for over 50 years. After he retired, he volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and Samaritan’s Purse (the latter charity had him travelling to various disaster sites to help in rebuilding projects.

Dick now serves as a receptionist at the SBCO office on an as-needed basis. Barb Nicolich assigns the 20 or so volunteers on the Receptionist Committee to serve as receptionists. Dick also serves on the SBCO Enrichment Committee and has been a volunteer for 22 years at the Golden Goose.

As if this wasn’t enough, Dick also serves as an AARP certified tax aide. The program requires him to take yearly classes, followed by four exams to test his knowledge and proficiency. During tax season, Dick provides free assistance to low-income and elderly filers three days a week.

When not volunteering, Dick enjoys golf, bridge, and singing in the church choir.

Dick enjoys his volunteer work and is so grateful to be able to give back to others. He often feels that he gets back more than he gives!