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April 11 >> Joy Christian School’s “Return to Hollywood,” Arizona Broadway Theatre, 7701 W. Paradise Lane
Joy Christian School presents their annual “Return to Hollywood” auction and dinner. The glamorous event, which is the school’s largest fund-raising event of the year, was generously sponsored by The Reserve at Eagle Heights—Western Pacific Properties, and Moore Chrysler Jeep. Moore Chrysler Jeep donated a new vehicle for the auction.
Photography by Josh Miller–Hope4Kids International
March 28 >> Hope 4 Kids International Charity Poker Tournament, Pinata Nueva, 3655 Anthem Way, Ste. D-105
Dennis Uptain of Arizona Casino Elite ran the tables for over forty-five registered poker players, who helped raise nearly $5,000 for the charity. Nanette Miller of State Farm Insurance sponsored the event, while Marty Gonzales of Pinata Nueva provided a relaxing and fun atmosphere for the gracious gamblers. hope4kidsinternational.org
Photography by Eric Fairchild
April 5 >> Celebrity Fight Night, JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa, 5350 E. Marriott Dr.
This star-studded, highly anticipated annual charity event hosted A-listers, music moguls, singing sensations, and amazing athletes for a night of high-class dining, entertainment, and live and silent auctions. 2008 Muhammad Ali Celebrity Fight Night awards went to actor Kevin Costner, music producer Clive Davis, and country music singer Reba McEntire, among others. The event has raised more than $45 million over thirteen years. celebrityfightnight.org
By Kevin Downey
Take a little Dave Matthews Band, toss in some Hootie and the Blowfish and Ben Harper, mix with influences ranging from jazz, classical music, and hip-hop, and you’ve got Three Ugly Guys, a Valley band making a name for itself playing around town.
“We get compared a lot to Dave Matthews and Ben Harper—more of a jam-band type of feel,” says Ugly Guy Joe Cea. “Those guys have sold a few CDs, so we don’t mind being compared to them.”
3UG, as they’re known, actually consist of six nice-looking musicians: Cea on bass; Mike “Leif” Erikson, vocals/guitar; Nick Rivette, guitar; Kenny Leslie, sax; Craig McVey, percussion/guitar; and David Drew, drums. The band released its first CD last year—The Pursuit of Uglyness—and also opened for Hootie at the Jobing.com Arena. They regularly play clubs like Martini Ranch in Scottsdale and Skye in Peoria. Their music consists mostly of original feel-good tunes that attract crowds in their thirties with songs that, as Cea puts it, don’t have lyrics about hating your parents screamed into a microphone.
The band, which got its start playing churches around the Valley, has all the ingredients for an explosion onto the national scene. But it’s a local band—each of its members has a day job. For now, they’re playing to increasingly large crowds at clubs like Red Owl in Tempe, on May 9.
“The draw of this band is that we’re not doing it to become famous,” says Cea, who’s married with two young kids. “When you come see Three Ugly Guys, you see six guys who genuinely enjoy being around each other. The product you get is authenticity from the first chord to the last.”
The band’s biggest break came last year in a competition held by Mix 96.9 FM. 3UG won, and was subsequently billed as the opening act for Hootie. But no matter how big 3UG gets or how far across the country it eventually wanders, it’s a Valley-based band that will always play venues here.
“We get some pretty good sized crowds locally,” says Cea. “That’s probably a pretty good indicator that we’re doing something right.”
Finding Love and Forgiveness for My Father
By Keith Jones
Fitness has been an amazing gateway to meeting extraordinary people. These fellow health-conscious people have helped me transform important areas of my life. The biggest impact was in the area of personal relationships—with my stepfather, in particular.
My stepfather was by far the most prominent male figure in my childhood. I had long dismissed our relationship as a painful part of my past that didn’t affect me as an adult. I was so wrong. My fitness friends helped me see how important it was to achieve closure on that part of my past so that other relationships could flourish.
Before getting to that point, I had to revisit my youth. My stepfather was someone I resented. I viewed his alcoholism as weakness. The abuse we suffered at his hand created hatred for him within me. As I matured, I pushed those painful years deep inside and was sure I would never deal with them again. I was wrong.
My story about how awful my childhood unconsciously manifested in almost every area of my life. My vow to be everything my stepfather was not turned me into a perfectionist. I judged everyone through this prism. Feeling alone and unloved caused me to withhold love and authenticity in my relationships. I never fully committed to anyone.
My primary channel for my feelings was conversing with people I met during exercise. Through their unconditional love, I developed the courage to take on my past. I came to realize that my stepfather did the best he could with what he knew. I called him and shared my true feelings. I told him how the events of my childhood had hurt me; how I interpreted his actions as abusive, harmful, and destructive to my spirit; and what my interpretation of those times had cost me—happiness in my life. By blaming him for everything, I was choosing to be right about resenting him rather than being happy. I apologized for the bitterness I carried for him, and thanked him for adopting me when my biological father chose not to be in my life. We created a new possibility for peace in our relationship.
I have my fitness friends to thank for this. This Father’s Day, have an authentic conversation with your father in which you do not place blame, but instead create a new possibility for a real relationship.
By Kevin Madness
“My mom has always told me that if you love what you do, you won’t work a day in your life,” Heather Hendon recalls. If that is true, then Hendon has indeed never toiled. From the cradle to the boardroom, she has been working alongside her family on a labor of love.
Hendon is the vice president of operations for Danny’s Family, a diverse Valley-based business conglomerate named for her father. Her parents started the company in 1984 with one car wash. Today, Danny’s Family owns thirteen full-service car washes, thirteen convenience stores, three truck washes, and two restaurants. Hendon attributes the success of the business to a dedicated work ethic shared by her family, particularly her father, who is the hardest worker that Hendon has ever known. Danny Hendon, she says, put his heart and soul in the business and acted as an early role model for his family.
“Since I was five years old, I have been around this business,” Hendon said. “I lived, breathed, and slept the car-care industry.”
Heather Hendon practically grew up at a car wash. As a teen, she worked selling chrome to truckers to outfit their rigs. It was no surprise to anyone when Hendon returned to the family business after graduating with honors from Arizona State University to work alongside her father.
Hendon says that it is crucial for her to be involved in every single aspect of the family business. This allows her to understand her operation and know that it is running properly. To expand her expertise, Hendon plans to begin working more with Barcelona, the family’s bar, steakhouse, and nightclub. “It’s very multifaceted,” she says. “It’s a field that I’m not that familiar with but am really enjoying getting to understand.”
One concept Heather certainly understands is generosity, a notion that was impressed upon her by her parents.
“From a very young age, my mother made it a priority to instill certain values within me,” she says. “She made it a point to always show me how fortunate we were to just have the basic necessities in life. She also wanted me to get out in the community and help others who weren’t as fortunate. There is no greater satisfaction in the world than knowing that you have helped someone else.” Hendon has logged many hours volunteering at local children’s hospitals, food banks, and animal shelters.
Her father, too, lives by a charitable maxim: The more you give, the more you get back—a theory the Hendons utilize in their business. With Heather Hendon’s help, Danny’s Family has given more than $750,000 to local charities and has raised over 10,000 pounds of canned food donations for St. Mary’s Food Bank.
The size of Hendon’s “family” continues to expand. With every community the company enters, every charitable cause they support, and every new person they employ.
“That is the most important thing, and we have created that here at Danny’s,” Heather says. “We are one big family.”
Just in time for Father’s Day, Nate Kretzmann, a single-parent father of three teenagers, shares with us his daily routine, favorite memories, and how he makes time for his children.
TIMETABLE FOR ACTION
Ah, the daily drill. With Andrew and Paul, my teenage boys, I’m up at 6 a.m., shower and get ready, and then get the boys up for school. I try to cook breakfast for them at least twice a week—the other days, they are own their own! The boys both go to Joy Christian High School where I serve as executive director, so we ride together to work/school. After school, they usually have sports or another activity, which is great, as my day is not done until much later. Again, we try to have dinner together at least twice a week—praise God for Crock-Pots! My daughter, Amanda, has just finished her first year of college and now works at a Christian camp in Texas. The routine is text messages every day, and a phone call about every other day!
FAVORITE FAMILY OUTINGS
Our favorite things to do are playing basketball and swimming together—sometimes those two things are combined! We like playing basketball at the gym at Joy twice a week. They love it when I play, as they can now “show me how it’s done!”
FATHER-DAUGHTER/FATHER-SON PROJECTS OR ACTIVITIES
We have formed a rock band together—the Raw Pelicans. I am the self-taught drummer, Andrew is the lead guitarist, and Paul happens to be our stellar vocalist. We practice about three times a week and just have a blast. When Amanda is home, she joins us. (By the way, it is “RockBand,” the Xbox game!)
FAVORITE RECOLLECTIONS
We have had so many great memories together! Last summer, we went with friends to South Akumal, Mexico and lived at the beach for a week. From the midnight drive from Cancun to Akumal with a car about to fall apart, the sunrise in the early morning over the ocean, the catamaran trip, the haircut in Tulum, and the endless sea turtles—it was amazing! But most of all, it was just the conversations and time spent together.
MAKING TIME FOR THE KIDS
As a single-parent father blessed with three awesome teenagers—ages 19, 17, and 15—life can become quite hectic, so we try to be as intentional as we can to plan time together. We write things in the calendar that we are going to do together. Some things are not optional; Sundays are family days, which begin with worship services at Community Church of Joy, followed by lunch together and, now that the weather is warmer, swimming in the pool. And yes, although they are teenagers, I still take the time to pray with them every night before they go to sleep.
By Andrew Z
A modern “Gold Rush” is happening as you read this, but this time around, the gold isn’t in them thar hills, and it just might be right in your own house. The title of this article may be tongue-in-cheek, but there is no kidding about the treasure that might be at the bottom of your jewelry box or in the back of a drawer. I’m talking about that which is referred to in the trade as “old gold” or “scrap gold.” This is typically jewelry that is either broken (not worth fixing), out of style, single earrings, or just plain ugly. You know the stuff—but what to do with it? Well, a booming gold market (as well as platinum and silver) may hold the answer to that question.
Many of my friends, family, and customers have been bringing in their old gold and platinum jewelry for me to evaluate and then turn into cash for them in the form of a check or store credit for new jewelry. The last time that I remember this type of opportunity was around 1980 when the gold market was around $800 per ounce. Over the past couple of months, the gold market has been back and forth over the $1,000 per ounce mark! (As I am writing this in early April, it is around $900, plus or minus a few dollars).
If you are thinking of getting together your old gold treasures, there are a few things that you should keep in mind:
1. Gold jewelry is typically not 100 percent gold content, because other metals were blended or alloyed with gold to make it more durable and workable, and also to bring the cost down. A few simple formulas to figure the gold content are as follows:
Pure gold = 24k
18k = 18/24 = 75 percent pure gold
14k = 14/24 = 58.3 percent pure gold
10k = 10/24 = 41.67 percent pure gold
2. The value of the gold content varies directly with the gold market’s ups and downs.
3. The gold content within your old jewelry must be extracted and refined back to pure, useable gold. This is an expensive process and is figured in during the payment for your scrap.
4. Not all is as it appears. Just because there is a stamped gold mark, say 14k, doesn’t mean that it is real. Counterfeits and low-karat impostors exist, but this is mostly with pieces purchased from unreliable and questionable sources.
Before you bring in any old gold, make up two bag lots: one with broken and unusable pieces, and another with good workable jewelry where the only thing wrong with it is that you no longer like it. The second bag may have items with a value higher than scrap. Also, diamonds and gems can usually be removed or added to the value.
Happy Mining!
How Women Are Roughing It Just for Fun
By Diana Bocco
By day, she might be a pharmacist, public accountant, journalist, or stay-at-home mom. But on weekends, she suits up with a harness, crash helmet, and kneepads and becomes the daring woman who enjoys climbing trees, speeding down a mountain, or tumbling around on a track. What drives these otherwise everyday women to take up extreme sports like solo rock climbing, roller derby, or competitive tree climbing?
Some women have felt “the call” since childhood. That was the case of Rhonda Wood. Growing up, she regularly climbed trees with the neighborhood boys. That led to a career in botany and a job as an arborist manager at the Disneyland Resort, where she climbed trees in order to shape them as Disney characters. When she crossed paths with the organizer of the Western Chapter Tree Climbing Championship, it was a match made in heaven.
“Before I knew it, I was in Arizona, climbing with all these great guys that were so supportive,” Wood says. “It was such an exhilarating thrill to be climbing in these trees on pure adrenaline, scampering through the branches like a squirrel.”
Meghan Goldmann, an art curator who belongs to the New York City’s Gotham City Roller Derby League, is motivated by the pure love of the sport. She said it was love at first sight after seeing a championship game in 2005. “Roller Derby is a relentlessly hard game to play, but it’s also fantastic to play since it’s so energetic and lively,” Goldmann says.
Aside from the intense physicality of the sport, many women are also attracted to extreme sports because of the camaraderie. Holly Harmon, an account manager with a Phoenix-based PR firm, said that she doesn’t play team sports because she doesn’t have a competitive nature. But extreme sports keep your workout going, and also helps build and extend friendships.
“In extreme sports, you can be competitive (with yourself) and still enjoy the company of friends that are working toward the same goal,” Harmon says “You can support, encourage, and learn from each other without having an agenda.”
Chris Ashford of Optical Edge, Inc., a company that specializes in pocketsize adventure trips, says there has been an increase in women earning salaries in the last ten to fifteen years, and that has led to them wanting to make their own decisions about how to spend the money. “They often want to try something new and exciting,” Ashford says.
For Harmon, there’s no question that she’s made up her own mind about her choice of leisure time—if it can be called that. Despite the potential hazards, expense, and considerable amounts of time that snowboarding and rock-climbing take, she is delighted at the chance to be outdoors to clear her head and decompress. The need to pay attention at all times to her surroundings and her body also gives her the chance to appreciate them. And, of course, there’s the joy of pushing her body’s limits
“The feeling afterwards of making it to the bottom of a hard ski run without stopping or ascending a 150-foot rock face is unexplainable,” Harmon says. “It helps me to realize how much I am truly capable of and helps to put other areas of my life into perspective, both the physical and nonphysical.”
By Kylie Gad
Weather-Smart Irrigation: The ET Manager from Rain Bird monitors real-time local weather conditions hourly through a wireless connection. The unit then calculates the information to determine if the existing irrigation cycle is necessary and adjusts watering levels accordingly. rainbird.com
Indoor Air Quality: Freshaire Choice Paint, now on sale exclusively at Home Depot, is the first paint available that contains zero harmful VOCs, which are compounds the EPA says contribute to indoor air pollution. Even better, the paint has no odor, making for a more enjoyable and healthier home improvement project. homedepot.com
Earth-Conscious Art: Eco-friendly Prang Soybean Crayons are made with natural, renewable soy oil instead of petroleum-based paraffin wax. This makes them completely nontoxic for kids, all without tapping the oil supply. prangpower.com
A Green Best Friend: Replace your pet’s nylon leash with a natural canvas or hemp one. Greenhouse gases are emitted during the production of nylon, and reducing the use of nylon products in your home is a simple way to help prevent this. urbanleashandtreat.com
Energy-Reducing Entertainment: By switching to an Energy Star-certified DVD player, you can save up to 30 kilowatt-hours of energy per year in your home. And don’t think that you’ll have a limited selection to choose from; the EPA’s Energy Star Web site currently lists 715 certified models from brands like Sony and Panasonic. energystar.gov
