Cut the Clutter—Shred Your Old Paper Files!
Nancy McCluskey-Moore
Stop giving outdated paper files valuable space in your home. Gather those no-longer-needed materials into boxes or bags and bring them to the Shredding and Recycling Event on Saturday, Oct. 25, from 9 a.m. to noon (or until the truck is full). The event, hosted by Long Realty-Golder Ranch, SaddleBrooke Community Outreach, and the Beacon Foundation, will be held on the SaddleBrooke HOA 1 parking lot next to the bocce ball courts.
To protect your privacy, all documents are put into containers at the drop-off site. The containers are locked and transported to the Beacon facility for shredding. In addition to documents, only computer hard drives, which may still be inside computers or laptops, will be accepted for recycling.
For each bag or box of items delivered for shredding or recycling, please bring $5 or five cans of food. All donations of cash or food will benefit the Tri-Community Food Bank and the Beacon Group.
For more information, please contact Long Realty at 15250 N. Oracle Road, #110 (in the Bashas’ complex) or 520–665–4200.
Monica Oszust serves as the Thursday Day Manager at the SBCO Kids’ Closet.
SBCO Volunteer Monica Oszust Enjoys Working with Kids
Kimberley Prochnau Whedbee
Monica Oszust is the incredibly busy Thursday Day manager of SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) Kids’ Closet in Mammoth. At Kids’ Closet, pre-school through eighth grade students living in towns from Catalina north to Miami and the San Carlos Apache reservation receive a new school wardrobe and two new books every fall and spring. Each child is assisted by a volunteer “personal shopper” who helps ensure he or she receives clothing that fits.
Monica’s role as Day Manager involves receiving the list of students coming to the Closet each Thursday session, preparing a shopping sheet and bag for each child, conducting the volunteer meeting, checking to ensure each child leaves with a complete wardrobe, and checking the volunteers in and out. Basically, she is the “go to” person for the day, resolving any issues and helping ensure the kids and volunteers have a good experience. Some of the funding for Kids’ Closet comes from money raised by the Golden Goose Thrift Shop (proceeds are split evenly between SBCO and Impact of Southern Arizona).
Monica says that she loves seeing the children’s faces light up with pride in their new school wardrobes furnished by Kids’ Closet. She also appreciates actually seeing how some of the proceeds from the Golden Goose Thrift Store are used.
Born and raised in Ohio, Monica was never one to let the grass grow (for very long) under her feet. After obtaining a business degree and acting as a buyer for a department store, she moved to Chicago, but then spent 10 years living in the U.S. Virgin Islands and running several beauty shops.
After getting tired of the hurricanes, she moved to Vail, Colo., and owned three beauty shops there. However, natural disasters had a way of following her and she moved again after her log house was hit by lightning and burned down!
Since her husband John is a Canadian citizen, they next moved to Vancouver, B.C., for six years. No natural disasters befell her there, but after tiring of the cold weather, Monica and John moved to Kauai, Hawaii, where they lived for 13 years. While there, she became involved in the Rotary Club, eventually becoming president of the club. Finally, she and her husband moved to SaddleBrooke Ranch.
Monica has continued her work with the local Rotary Club. Currently one of its major initiatives is to fight human trafficking, including educating children at-risk as to the dangers and providing them with support.
In her spare time, Monica plays pickleball and golf and rides bikes with her husband. She also is an accomplished maker of quilts, which she often donates to silent auctions for the Rotary Club and other volunteer programs.
At the Golden Goose fashion show in 2024, volunteer Diana Larroque modeled a beautiful ensemble created from the shop’s donated merchandise.
Mark Your Calendar for the SBCO Fall Meeting and Golden Goose Fashion Show
Nancy McCluskey-Moore
The SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) Fall Kick-off General Meeting, which features the popular “Golden Goose Fashion Show,” will be held at 3 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 20,
in the MountainView Clubhouse ballroom. This is a great opportunity to learn about the wide variety of SBCO programs to feed, clothe, enrich, and educate local youngsters—and see some affordably priced (but very stylish) clothing. This annual fashion show proves that Golden Goose Thrift Shop customers know how to dress well while saving money.
Each year Melanie Stout and Suzanne Marlatt Stewart organize this much-loved event. After they decide on a theme, clothing and coordinating accessories—from casual to formal wear and even costumes—are selected for quality and style to display some of the best things available to Golden Goose shoppers. Melanie promotes the fashion show among Golden Goose volunteers and recruits models, many of whom contribute their own fashion savvy and sense of humor to the occasion. Melanie also writes the outfit descriptions, determines the lineup and helps the models proceed to the “runway” in the correct order. Suzanne serves as the show’s stylish and engaging mistress of ceremony.
The Golden Goose Thrift Shop evenly divides its proceeds between SBCO and IMPACT of Southern Arizona. Whenever you donate items to the store or buy treasures from its inventory, you are helping to support the work of both of these great local charities. Since its founding more than 20 years ago, the Golden Goose has contributed more than $20 million to these two nonprofits, changing the lives of thousands of local residents.
Last year a group participated in the Walk, enjoying time spent socializing and exercising in the Arizona sunshine.
Registration Now Open for 27th Annual SBCO Walk for Kids!
Nancy McCluskey-Moore
It’s time to register for the SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) Walk for Kids. The Walk will begin with a warm-up session at 8:40 a.m. followed by the walk at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 8. This signature SBCO event helps support our food, clothing, enrichment, and education programs benefiting youngsters along a 100+-mile corridor from Catalina to the San Carlos Indian Reservation and the Miami school system. SBCO also offers scholarships and enrichment grants to students in Globe. Annually, SBCO touches the lives of approximately 4,000 students through new clothes, backpacks filled with school supplies, college scholarships, contributions to Tri-Community Food Bank, and financial support for a wide range of educational enrichment activities.
Online registration for the 2025 Walk for Kids will begin on Monday, Aug. 25, at community-outreach.org. The registration fee of $35 per adult and $10 per child (ages 6 through 18) covers the cost of a t-shirt, snacks, and drinks.
If you choose not to register online, in person registration begins on Tuesday, Sept. 2, and runs through Nov. 7, every Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. at the SBCO office at Suite L in the SaddleBrooke Business Plaza on SaddleBrooke Blvd. Registrations also will be accepted the day of the event. However, please register by Sept. 26 to ensure that you receive a t-shirt in your size.
Build a Walk for Kids team! It’s a lot of fun to walk with your friends and neighbors while supporting SBCO. No only will you get your “steps” in, you’ll be able to catch up with your pals on a Saturday morning.
New School Clothes from SBCO Boost Students’ Self Esteem
Nancy McCluskey-Moore
Twice a year, in the fall and spring, SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) provides school wardrobes and school supplies to children living in towns along a 100+ mile corridor from Catalina north to Miami and San Carlos. Kids’ Closet serves children from pre-school through 8th grade, while Teen Closet assists students in 9th through 12th grade. By offering new clothing and shoes, both programs help to raise students’ self-esteem while reducing the strain on their families’ already limited budgets. And every student delights in being able to choose what they wear.
Teen Closet shopping days are held on multiple evenings in July and January at the Target and Ross Dress for Less stores in Oro Valley. In April, our Partner schools identified students entering 9th grade who would benefit from the program based on family needs. To continue in Teen Closet, each student must attend school regularly, attain a passing GPA, and perform six hours of community service each semester to shop for clothing, personal hygiene items and school supplies. Students who graduate from high school in the spring are given one last shopping trip in July when they can purchase items for their dorm rooms or apartments in addition to clothing. This past July, 108 students from six high schools in the SBCO service area were met by an adult volunteer who helped the teen to stay within his/her $275 budget. A total of 84 men and women volunteered to accompany a teen. Teen Closet gives teenagers the opportunity to attend school with pride, knowing that they have earned this benefit through their hard work and with mindfulness of the needs of others in their community. The next Teen Closet event will be held in January 2026. If you would like to help a student shop, please email sbco.teen.closet@community-outreach.org so your name can be added to the volunteer list.
Kids’ Closet is located in “the big red building” in Mammoth. Students are brought on school buses on Mondays and Thursdays or, on Saturdays, by their parents, to the facility. Inside, there is a waiting area where each child can select two grade-appropriate books to take home. In the shopping and fitting area, volunteers serve as personal shoppers, helping each child find clothing that fits, but the children make their own selections from the t-shirts, shorts or jeans, jackets or sweatshirts, and shoes in stock. Students also receive underwear, socks, and personal toiletry items, such as toothbrushes and toothpaste. Dressing rooms and bins of clothing organized by size help to recreate the experience of shopping in a store. Between the fall season, which this year runs from Sept. 8 through Nov. 24, and the spring season, from late January or early February through April, Kids’ Closet provides approximately 3,200 wardrobes each year. Backpacks filled with grade-appropriate school supplies are delivered directly to schools for distribution. If you would like to become a Kids’ Closet volunteer, please send an email to Margaret Thompson at thompson7767@yahoo.com.