By Carol La Valley

Photos courtesy Kiwanis

A riddle:
They flip golden, fluffy pancakes
Dress up flea market aisles
Lend wheelchairs to the elderly
And send teens to college with anticipation and smiles

Who are they? If you guessed the busy Kiwanis of Carefree (and Cave Creek) members who are meeting the needs of people young and old in their community, you would be correct. Kiwanis’s pancake breakfasts are a signature event of the club that chartered in 1973. However, their accomplishments are not financed by pancakes alone.

At least 500 people fill the amphitheater in the heart of Carefree twice a year for breakfast, served up by Kiwanis volunteers. As fun (and tasty) as that may be, the club’s worthy endeavors have been fueled for the past 15 years by giant flea-market sales that take place about every other month. Medical-assistance items that are donated may find their way to the loan closet, and a person in need can leave a message at (480) 488-8400 and make arrangements to borrow a walker, wheelchair, or other aid. The next flea market will be held March 27 at the Kiwanis Warehouse, 7177 E. Ed Everett Way.

The club received $2.5 million in the form of a charitable trust this past year. The trust and normal fund-raising efforts enabled Kiwanis club to give the community $800,000, which includes donations to the Desert Foothills Food Bank, YMCA, Foothills Community Foundation, and Caring Corps, an organization that provides transportation for the homebound. Because of Kiwanians’ $100,000 scholarship commitment, area students are able to further their education.

“We must be good stewards of that money,” says Susan Vanic, 2009–10 club president.

Children remain priority one for Kiwanis International. The science fair, in cooperation with the Cave Creek Unified School District, is one way in which the local club makes that goal a reality. At four years old, the event is in its infancy, yet 3,325 students from 11 schools submitted 2,079 projects this past year. Kindergarten through high school students and their parents can find information about the event on their Web site.

The AKTION Club is one of three major programs that Kiwanians of Carefree have embraced this year. The volunteers will be working with professionals to fund, plan, and host social events for developmentally challenged young adults. Kiwanians are again active in the Junior Achievement program in partnership with local schools and the Carefree Cave Creek Chamber of Commerce. Vanic budgeted money for an unspecified project, and members came forward with a third idea. They are in the early stages of identifying ways to make a difference in the lives of autistic children. The president is delighted. “It just goes to show what kind of members we have in the club,” she says.

The 254-member–strong club is presently the sixth largest in the world. Members meet each Wednesday at noon at Harold’s Corral in Carefree for lunch and to hear an interesting speaker. When the Arizona weather is fine and “in season,” they number over 100. Active hands are always needed to continue traditional events and enthusiastically produce new ones.

“We have a great group of volunteers,” says past president David Bell. “Many have run big companies and now, here they are, working as laborers and having fun doing it.”

For information on volunteering and programs, visit kiwaniscarefree.org

By Carol La Valley

Photos courtesy Helping Hands

Shakespeare’s Hamlet asked, “What is a man, if his chief good and market of his time, be but to sleep and feed?” Craig Juntunen found an answer when he became the adoptive father of three at age 51.

He’d sold his company, retired early, and he and wife Kathi started living the good life—days filled with golf and skiing, cocktail parties in the evenings. Yet after a “fantastic” first year, Craig asked himself, is this the honest measure of my worth?

His soul searching and the encounter with a friend who had adopted internationally led him to Port-au-Prince, Haiti and an orphanage that was running out of money. “Haiti is a desperate, dire place,” Juntunen says. “When you see children standing by the side of the road with no clothes and no shoes, you recognize that those children don’t have much of a future.” He decided to buy the orphanage. Today the 24,000 square-foot orphanage employs 75 Haitians, including a pediatrician who comes once a week to see children and two full-time nurses.

In the midst of the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, the man who swore he would never be a dad fell in love with three children. Quinn had been abandoned on a doorstep, then taken to an orphanage that only served older children. He was dehydrated and malnourished. Craig brought the infant to be nursed back to health at the orphanage he had just purchased, and within a few days, the staff started calling the baby Little Craig. The Juntunens decided to adopt Quinn along with two other children, Espie and Amelec.

International adoption is expensive and tangled in red tape; it has become more so since its peak in 2004 when 22,500 adoptions took place. Current costs can reach as high as $40,000. “The cost is way too high, and the wait is one and a half to two years,” Juntunen says. “Americans typically do not like to wait two years for anything.” In 2009, Juntunen estimates that there will be less than 10,000 international adoptions.

At the same time he purchased the orphanage, he and Kathi started Chances for Children to assist families in adopting children from Haiti and to advocate for streamlined processes and lowered fees for international adoption. To the latter end, Craig met in October with Congressional leaders and lobby groups in Washington, D.C. to mobilize financial resources and raise awareness. Juntunen aims to see international adoption back in the public consciousness, and not just with anecdotal horror stories of how long and financially burdensome the process is. “Social change does occur voice by voice,” Juntunen says. “Chances for Children is in the initial stages of trying to create that movement.”

Amelec is 5 years old now, and Craig has fun sharing his love of football with him (he was a quarterback for the University of Idaho and played professionally in Canada). Four-year-old Espie loves to dance, and baby Quinn is growing strong. “Whether kids are from Haiti or Houston, all they need is love and family so they can catch up and fulfill their potential,” Craig says.

Craig wrote a book while running the orphanage and becoming a dad. The book is titled Both Ends Burning: My Story of Adopting Three Children from Haiti and is selling well. All royalties help fund Chances for Children. “It is not a chest-pounding, save-the-world book,” the author says. “Kids are supposed to be fun; life is supposed to be fun. It’s a fun book.”

Amelec, Espie, and Quinn are living the life they dreamed with parents who love them. You can help other children find loving families. Visit chances4children.org to learn about the ways you can get involved.

By Carol La Valley
Photos courtesy VOAz

A vermillion flycatcher could dart across the path as you hike through the beauty of the riparian wilderness known as Jewel of the Creek. Campers and day-trippers who visit the area near Cave Creek can thank members of Volunteers for Outdoor Arizona (VOAz) for their hard work. The group created a trail system, complete with erosion control and water-harvesting structures within the 26.6-acre parcel, over weekends from the fall of 2002 to February of 2007.

“One would be surprised with how much work goes into the trails we use as recreationists,” says Carla Olson, VOAz outreach coordinator. “As a hiker and backpacker, my level of appreciation expanded tremendously after my first volunteer experience building trail—from recognizing a ‘good’ trail that is designed for sustainability to appreciating how well-planned trails are essential to minimizing user impact as our population grows.”

Olson firmly believes that with population growth comes the responsibility to protect natural areas and work to restore already-affected areas. This responsibility was keyed into when VOAz helped reroute the northwestern South Mountain trail in Phoenix that had been closed due to housing build-out.

“Desert Foothills Land Trust cooperated with and trusted us at Jewel of the Creek,” says Michael Baker, the project’s leader and VOAz executive director. “They allowed us to put the trail where it was needed to be sustainable and professional.”

VOAz projects have spanned the state since Baker decided to replicate Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado’s model in the late 1990s to incorporation as an independent nonprofit funded by the Dorothy Garske Center and grants from recreation giant REI in 2002.  A few years ago, members took crayfish out of Fossil Creek so that native fish could repopulate the travertine streams. In the south, participants have done stabilization work at Sonoita Creek below Patagonia. Noxious plant removal and replanting of native species is part of the ongoing project VOAz is performing in partnership with Grand Canyon National Park.

The most interesting experience so far for longtime member and Project Leader Ed Blanchard was using his carpentry skills to rebuild the visitors’ overlook above the pond at Boyce Thompson Arboretum. “The piers were in good shape so Michael [Baker] and I decided to tear down the aging, rickety, dangerous deck and rebuild it with a cover,” he says. Twenty-five volunteers contributed their time to the event that spanned four weekends.

Members and volunteers are given training that corresponds to their experience, and VOAz provides the tools. Most events begin on a Friday evening. Participants camp out Friday and Saturday nights, sometimes at worksites that the public will not get to see. VOAz provides dinner and breakfast. Events are open to families, with consideration for age-appropriate activities. The youth arm of VOAz is provided through high schools and clubs and involves teens 14 to 18. Members of VOAz get first consideration over regular volunteers when signing up for an event.

Blanchard invites volunteer participation. “Volunteers have fun and work in a safe environment,” he says. “These are well-orchestrated occasions. We don’t leave anything to happenstance. Perhaps it is a location you enjoy or perhaps it is something being done—maybe you’ve grown a distaste for invasive species, but come out and volunteer.”

An events calendar and information on Volunteers for Outdoor Arizona is available on their Web site: voaz.org, or by e-mailing voaz@voaz.org or calling (480) 966-2689.

By Carol La Valley
Photos courtesy of AWEE/Louann Phillips

PHOTO CREDITS:

Arizona Women’s Education and Employment’s president and CEO Marie Sullivan is passionate about helping people.

Participants at AWEE’s Youth Employment Summer Summit (YESS) in June have fresh goals and the means to achieve them.

Reentry participants in Arizona Women’s Education and Employment’s Mentoring Service Activity Group have started meeting monthly to participate in a community volunteer project. The group makes get-well cards for Phoenix Children’s Hospital patients.

When teenagers graduate AWEE’s Youth Workforce Readiness Workshops, they are ready to be reliable, creative employees.

Success in the workplace comes in increments for women who are stepping out of incarceration into the Valley sun. Arizona Women’s Education and Employment (AWEE) programs lead them to take personal responsibility.

Leticia Butler, age 36 and single mother of two, knew she had to become proactive as she acknowledged her past misdeeds and faced a down job market. When she had to list a felony on the application, her heart sank and depression escalated, even though she is an experienced collections clerk. Her prayers were answered when she heard about the career preparation, job-retention skills, and life coaching that nonprofit AWEE offers women as well as men ages 14 and older—for free.

“What stressors did AWEE relieve?” Butler rhetorically asks. “Everything. When you are living day to day, you don’t have time to plan.”

Butler juggled finding daycare for her toddlers, wondering how she would afford a bus pass ($5.25 per day on Valley Metro), and knowing she needed a résumé but lost as to how she might bring hers current. Sitting in a room with people with similar tribulations, she explored careers, learned how to write cover letters to accompany résumés that touted strengths, and answered the ever important “Tell me about yourself.”

Side by side with career development specialist Monika Nathan, Butler learned to set achievable goals. Twelve weeks ago, she came to AWEE. Nine weeks ago, she started a new job. Seven weeks ago, she received a pay raise. One month ago, she was able to move into her own apartment. Now she is making plans to return to college in the fall.

Volunteers make it possible for AWEE to achieve its mission to “change lives through the dignity of work.” They mentor women who have been laid off and need to find a new sense of direction, women who have escaped domestic violence and seek a means to provide for their families, and homemakers returning to the work force. These caring volunteers might be retail managers or your neighbor next door, retired professionals or bank presidents. They can be women like Lois Lucas, who have been through AWEE programs and know how to help a client obtain a food box or face the fear that they will always be seen for who they were versus who they continue to strive to become. “A lot of people stepped up and helped me for no good reason, so now I just want to help somebody else,” Lucas says.

Volunteers process donations of gently used work clothes so a woman can feel confident presenting herself for job interviews as well as the first day on the job. They are currently needed to help with special-event planning and provide computer and technical support. Dollars also make AWEE’s empowerment of women possible as the organization transitions its $1.4 million budget from 42 percent public funds to 80 percent private support. In 2008, AWEE served 9,000 people.

“This year, we are already are on target for 10,000,” says Marie Sullivan, AWEE’s director and CEO since 1997. “Seeing people’s lives change as the result of finding dignity in staying employed, and as a result, taking care of their families, moves me every day. It never gets old.”

For more information about AWEE, visit awee.org or call (602) 223-4333.

By Carol La Valley
Photos courtesy of Whispering Hope Ranch

Photo 1: (WHR Gussie mom Britta)

Gussie and her mother share a joyful moment with Britta, part of the llama family at Whispering Hope Ranch.

Photo 2: (WHR girl with turkey)

A camper at Whispering Hope Ranch is glad this turkey will not be part of the Thanksgiving table.

Photo 3: (WHR Duck)

When blind duck Black Beauty and visually impaired camper Lauren were introduced, Lauren whispered, “I know why you named her Black Beauty. Black is what she sees and beauty is what she is.”

Photo 4: (WHR Magic Maggie)

Magic Maggie is a very loving, gentle giant who loves every moment of interaction with WHR guests. Camper Anna loved her right back.

The children’s excitement is palpable as they breathe in the pine-scented air. They have arrived at an extraordinary place. Whispering Hope Ranch (WHR), nestled in the Tonto National Forest, is their retreat from a world of doctor visits to treat diseases such as hemophilia or spina bifida.

Guests can saddle up for a jaunt around the therapeutic riding arena or play games on the ball field. They can weave llama hair into bracelets while they talk and laugh with their friends and later identify constellations in a starry sky with the “Hubblescope.”

“The animals are the best part,” says Steffi Edwards, a teenage repeat visitor with cerebral palsy.

A bunny named Cocoa responds to the soft pats of small hands. Children giggle at the quacking conversation of ducks and marvel at the height of a friendly 1,600-pound Clydesdale, Magic Maggie. The 100 animals that live at WHR have challenges. Rabbits’ teeth grow continually, and Cocoa’s grow an inch per month and need to be filed so he can eat. Ducks Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chewey are blind. Maggie has inflamed hooves that make it difficult for her to walk.

Maggie couldn’t take tolerate the heat in Phoenix, where she’d lived until she was relinquished to the ranch for her comfort. Recently, the little boy who owned Maggie visited the ranch with his class from High Star School. WHR Executive Director, Mary Clark, counts the reunion among her “most touching experiences.”

“The animals give people the ability to relate to something in this world that is alive and breathing and [also] dealing with issues,” says Deanna Zappan, senior recreation coordinator for the City of Scottsdale. She brings people age 16 and older from the Adaptive Recreation Services program to WHR annually. “They really like the learning aspect, that the staff takes time to tell them stories about the animals.”

WHR spans 47 acres at a 6,500-foot elevation east of Payson. It is open year-round, but many of its guests have physical conditions that make them cold intolerant, so the busy season for weeklong camps and shorter retreats is April through October. Priority one for WHR is to meet the needs of children, adults, and animals with developmental and physical challenges. Raven Roost is one of ten cabins that each sleep up to twelve campers and caregivers, with medical needs accommodated at the wellness center. A combination of trained staff and volunteers make WHR a fun, safe camp.

“Groups vary so much,” Clark says. “At a minimum, we have one caregiver per four children, but there are many guests who need more care.”

Volunteer opportunities abound at WHR. Scouts and other groups have helped maintain trails, groom animals, and build shelters. Right now, privacy screens are needed for inside the cabins, while musicians, craft teachers, coaches, and astronomers are needed to direct activities. Monetary donations are welcome, as the ranch concentrates on operational costs. WHR looks toward a future with a main lodge and additional cabins. “We want to keep the intimate experience we have now where we know the children by name,” Clark says.

To learn more about Whispering Hope Ranch Foundation, call (928) 478-0339 or visit whisperinghoperanch.org.

By Lee Nelson
Photography by Brenda Warner
He laughs. He plays. Bryson acts like any 5-year-old boy with energy and a magnetic smile. But this little boy will always require 24-hour medical care because of a birth disease called lymphangioma cystic hygroma.

At 3 months old, Bryson came to Hacienda HealthCare suffering from this genetic disease. Cysts continue to grow on his soft tissue, usually around the neck or face. These often compress Bryson’s airway, so a tracheotomy has helped him to breathe. He has already undergone a series of surgeries and will need many more to control the disease. Bryson is just one of the many infants, children, and young adults for whom the staff at Hacienda cares.

Children like Bryson need a lot of extra care, equipment, and attention. The Children’s Angel Foundation allows Hacienda to deliver excellent service for a better quality of life to those young people in need of a little something extra.

The foundation is the fund-raising and public-awareness arm of the nonprofit Hacienda HealthCare, Arizona’s leading provider of specialized health care and social services for infants through young adults. More than 2,000 individuals are helped by Hacienda’s services and programs each year, which include 24-hour nursing, therapy programs, educational services, and social and dietary assistance.

Hacienda Intermediate Care Facility for the Mentally Retarded, founded in 1967, is the state’s leading provider of long- and short-term care for the medically fragile and developmentally disabled children. The Hacienda Skilled Nursing Facility caters to skilled nursing services for young people. Other programs include Los Niños Children’s Hospital, five group homes, and a day-treatment center.

Hacienda is also opening a supervised group home for autistic young men. They will go through vocational training and work at paying jobs at one of the Hacienda sites.

There are a number of ways to get involved in helping Hacienda patients. Volunteers come at all times to rock babies and cuddle the children. Some read to the children or just sit and talk with them. The Thrift & Boutique Shop is always in need of people to donate items, volunteer, or shop.

Others may consider making a cash gift or a gift of life insurance, stocks, or a legacy donation through a will. The Children’s Angel Foundation also holds two annual fund-raising events, like the upcoming fifteenth annual Nights of Angels on May 1 at the Arizona Broadway Theatre. The foundation also sponsors the Angels on the Greens Celebrity Golf Tournament.

Donations to the foundation go toward purchasing specialized equipment and personalized items not covered by insurance. Past funds have gone toward obtaining toys, games, and clothes for patients; paying for excursions for patients of low-income families; and buying capital items, such as vans, for the facilities.

Little 17-month-old Mashayla will always eat through a tube in her stomach. She is unable to communicate—the results of encephalopathy due to meningitis, a condition that causes a lack of oxygen delivered to the brain. But she smiles when you hug her. Getting involved with this nonprofit could give many other children something to smile about.

haciendahealthcare.org or childrensangelfoundation.org

By Alana Stroud
Photos courtesy of AZ Eagles
Have you ever wondered whether there is a program in your community dedicated to providing a helping hand without your having to go through a bunch of red tape to receive the help or listen to fourteen options on an automated phone system before you can finally reach a live person? Perhaps you need just a little help with your rent, or maybe your child needs schoolbooks that you can’t afford, or you may have a medical bill coming due while your pockets remain empty. AZ Eagles is that program, and it is making an impact on Arizona communities in a major way.

AZ Eagles is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose members are ready to roll up their sleeves and give back to the community through fund-raising and volunteer contributions. The organization was originally formed by a group of men who met while attending a personal development seminar in 2007. AZ Eagles was born out of the founders’ realization that they had the potential to make a difference. The organization now boasts over seventy members that comprise men and women from differing professions and backgrounds. All have taken it upon themselves to create positive changes in Arizona communities.

AZ Eagles has an impressive list of charities they have donated to or volunteered for, such as UMOM, Phoenix Youth at Risk, YMCA/Chauncey Ranch, Sunshine Acres, West Valley Child Crises Center, AZ Coalition for Domestic Violence, Helping Hands for Single Moms, PSI World, Camp Choice programs, Horses Help, The Sojourner Center, Christmas Giving Day and The New Life Center. In their inaugural year, they raised more than $60,000 for these charities and managed to double their membership numbers. In 2008, their raised funds jumped to $100,000, and they donated over 800 man-hours of volunteer time, resulting in the increase of volunteer events from once per quarter to bimonthly. Two of the special annual events that AZ Eagles hosts are the Halloween Bash and the Golf Tournament.

Raising funds for local charities takes a lot of work, but volunteering is also a major part of AZ Eagles’ criteria. According to the organization, “a personal human touch makes a more dramatic and instant impact in the lives of their fellow citizens.” Mentoring at-risk youth, painting shelters, and building affordable housing for the homeless are just a few examples of the contributions AZ Eagles has gladly made to the community.

The original founders are Arizona transplants. Al Paparelli, president, moved to Phoenix from Detroit in 1981. He is currently a successful real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Brothers Realty and spends a great deal of his time as an adult mentor for Phoenix Youth At Risk. All three of Paparelli’s children are members of AZ Eagles, and they are proud that their father is the first to reach into his own pocket to donate to the organization. Vice President Tom Cerino moved to Arizona at the age of 13. With a successful consulting practice and five television shows under his belt, Cerino still finds the time to provide life coaching and raise funds for families in need. The vision and backbone of the organization have been developed by these two men, and it takes all the volunteers to follow the vision through and flesh out those bones.

If you are interested in becoming a member, donating, or volunteering your time, please contact Dennis Clark at dennis@doctorsnutritioncenter.com or call him directly at (602) 908-8520. If you are an organization that would like AZ Eagles to host an event or provide assistance, please contact JT Driscoll in Public Relations at (602) 418-1163 or e-mail az_eagles@cox.net. Check out AZ Eagles’ Web site at azeagles.org for more information, photos, and upcoming events in your area.

By Zak Wagner

SWM seeking tall, middle-aged female companion who enjoys running, hiking, and other outdoor activities. Ideally, she would have dark hair and be low maintenance. A happy disposition is a must. She must like cats and kids, as I have both. A few missing teeth is fine, but otherwise healthy with no serious ongoing medical conditions is preferable. Also, while I don’t mind having to do some training, I do have brand-new carpet, so she must be housebroken at least.

You’ve probably guessed that this isn’t a lonely gentleman looking for female human companionship. He is, however, looking for a happy lifelong relationship. This hypothetical ad covers many of the things that RESCUE (Reducing Euthanasia at Shelters through Commitment and Underlying Education) looks for in placing one of their rescued pets with a new family. The organization is serious about their matchmaking process, and with good reason. Many people see the cute doggie or kitty in a picture or at a shelter and just have to have it—at least until they get the animal home and it pees on the new carpet or chews up the favorite shoes. Suddenly, they realize they hadn’t bargained for some of the issues that owning pets involves, and so the animal goes right back where it started, in another shelter or possibly left on the street to a sadder fate.

The matchmaking service helps to eliminate some of these issues by matching you with an animal in need of a good home that also fits into your lifestyle and matches your requirements. RESCUE’s three-step matchmaking process is a key to their low return rate. First, you fill out the matchmaker form, which is then assessed by one of their matchmakers. Next, someone will call you to follow up and go over with you what animals are available that match what you are looking for. Finally, you will have a face-to-face meeting. If at this point they don’t have the perfect match for you, they now have your criteria, and with their constant stream of rescues will most likely have exactly what you want within a few weeks.

Many of the dogs and cats helped by RESCUE have been previously considered unadoptable, a classification which can be something as simple as a broken tooth or as severe as a serious health or behavior issue. However, the staff at RESCUE has found that most of them just need a second chance at life with a loving family. In fact, RESCUE has saved over 9,000 cats and dogs from being put to death in pounds and shelters across Maricopa County since 1995. Their unique matching service has resulted in a low 8 percent return rate of their adopted animals, compared with the average of around 50 percent.

RESCUE is Maricopa County’s largest no-kill animal rescue organization, which is made more remarkable by the fact that it is a “virtual” shelter with no facilities of its own. The animals they rescue are kept either by one of 400 foster families or by friendly participating veterinarians. While this has been a highly successful method, it severely limits RESCUE’s ability to save even larger numbers of animals that are condemned to death every day at various pounds. They are now working to change all of that with exciting plans for their very own facility. This will enable them to save thousands more of these wonderful pets, as well as to help them to become financially self-sustaining—a crucial component, as their veterinary bills alone run into the tens of thousands every month. So far, RESCUE has raised $100,000 of the $500,000 price tag. The help of individuals and the community is key to reaching their goal.

If you are in search of that special one to complete your household and add a little extra touch of companionship and love, RESCUE can help you find the perfect match.

To learn more about donating to AZ RESCUE or if you’re looking for that special someone, contact the organization at donate@azrescue.org or visit their Web site at azrescue.org.

By Kevin Madness

October is national Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a time for the public to focus attention on a pervasive and often deadly crime and also a call for battered women to break their silence. It is a month for everyone to work in support of safety for abuse victims nationwide.

This year, women in the Valley can lend their support in style by participating in the Girls Night Out To Cut Out Domestic Abuse annual fund-raiser, a night of manicures, pedicures, shopping, and fine foods. All money earned will benefit domestic abuse prevention resources.

The event’s organizer is no stranger to the pain associated with intimate partner abuse. Throughout high school and college, Pennsylvania native Donna Bartos was slapped, punched, and verbally degraded by her boyfriend. The years of terror culminated in 1993— Bartos’s boyfriend smashed her head into a concrete floor, and that was the final act that gave her the courage to end the relationship. However, she still needed to find the inner strength to speak out against her batterer.

“The embarrassment and fear of what people would think kept me silent until the summer of 2006,” Bartos says.

When Bartos attended a seminar for domestic violence education, she realized she was a silent victim and felt compelled to do something to stop the epidemic of abuse. From that day on, she was silent no more. She had previous experience in fund-raising, and she used it to create her own volunteer organization, the Purple Ribbon Council, and began planning the Girls Night Out events.

Girls Night Out takes place the first Thursday of October. The event’s goal is to build mass public awareness about domestic violence and domestic homicide—this means mobilizing victims and survivors to speak up, restore hope, and save lives. Since the first event in October, 2006, Girls Night Out has been set up in eight other states. Last year, a combined total of $50,000 was raised. By 2010, Bartos hopes to have a Girls Night Out event in every state and collect one million dollars annually.

Domestic violence is a national epidemic, and Girls Night Out is particularly essential in Arizona. The state ranks second in the number of women killed by men, according to the Governor’s Division for Women. The Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence reports that there were 101 domestic violence-related deaths here in 2006. Bartos says that these numbers can be prevented if friends and family members respond to the signs of domestic abuse before it turns deadly.

The Valley area Girls Night Out will take place on the evening of October 2 at the exquisite Dolce Salon and Spa at Arrowhead. Bartos says that guests can expect an evening of empowerment, complete with salon pampering, including manicures, pedicures, massages and haircuts. There will also be fine foods, entertainment, silent auctions, and shopping, with the proceeds benefiting local safe houses Eve’s Place and Harmony House.

“Safe houses are in constant need of funding,” says Laura Horsley, executive director of Eve’s Place. “There is never enough money for what we need to do.”

Horsley says that the funds raised by this year’s Girls Night Out event will allow them to provide rent and utility payments and other ongoing support for local women and children.

Tickets to Girls Night Out are $30 for the Support level, which includes general admission with refreshments, entertainment, shopping, a chance to win a salon/spa door prize, and more; $60 for the Benefit level adds a manicure; and the Empower level at $90 adds a pedicure, massage, makeup lesson, or hairstyling.

If you ask Donna Bartos why October is a special time of year, she will tell you that there is strength in numbers. When women can come together and raise their collective voice, their message can be heard: “Make every home a safe one.”

For more information about Girls Night Out and the October event, visit girls-night-out.org or e-mail purpleribboncouncil@yahoo.com.

By Shannon Willoby

Michel Herstam and Heather Allen, cofounders of the local Phoenix charity HALO (Helping Animals Live On), are true angels to the countless dogs and cats they save from euthanasia each year. Through HALO, the mother-daughter team rescues animals awaiting euthanasia on “death row” in various shelters and places them with foster “parents” until their forever homes can be found. In 2007 alone, HALO found homes for 603 dogs and 1,697 cats who otherwise may have never been given the chance to live.

HALO is a no-kill nonprofit animal organization that Herstam and Allen cofounded in 1994 after they had been cat foster parents for Kitty Love, another animal organization. They saw firsthand just how many homeless animals there were, how few foster homes were available to them, and what their grave fate would eventually be. As a result, HALO Animal Rescue was formed. The two women began fostering animals in their own homes and working closely with local animal organizations to provide the public with low-cost or free spay-and-neuter opportunities.

Many of the HALO team’s good works are funded out of their own pockets. On any given week, HALO cats and kittens are housed in adoption centers at seven different PetSmart locations and one Petco. Every weekend, Herstam gives up her free time to bring some of HALO’s rescued dogs and cats to the PetSmart at Seventh Avenue and Bell in the hope of finding them loving families. To make sure that pets go to a responsible home, a member of HALO will talk with the family members to ensure that the match will be a perfect one for both the animal and the new owners. And, of course, no animal leaves HALO without first being spayed or neutered and microchipped.

To help fund their work, HALO opened a volunteer-run thrift boutique in 2006 where 100 percent of the profits go to the organization’s animal rescue efforts. HALO is always accepting donations of quality home furnishings, jewelry, shoes, clothing, and home accessories. If you feel something rubbing against your legs while you’re browsing the racks, it’s just Mister and Basil, the boutique’s rescues-in-residence, happily visiting with customers while they shop.

Although Mister and Basil are content to live at the boutique until their permanent homes are found, many other animals aren’t as lucky. In this spirit, HALO is getting closer to making their dream of opening a no-kill shelter a reality, as they have purchased a 1,000-square-foot building in Phoenix. They estimate that it will cost $400,000 to get the shelter up and running, and they have currently raised $25,000. HALO is in desperate need of cash donations, supplies, and labor that will go toward creating a safe place for unwanted pets to live until they can be adopted. Allen sees an overwhelming and undeniable need for such a place. “Between April 6 and April 12, 875 cats and dogs were euthanized at two shelters in Maricopa County,” she says, sadly.

Even more necessary than the need for a no-kill shelter is responsibility on the part of pet owners and animal lovers. Allen urges the public to spay and neuter not only their own pets, but also any homeless animals they may be feeding. This will help stop the flood of animals coming into shelters. Help is available through HALO to anyone who is unable to get their pets spayed and neutered because of financial reasons.

An unwavering passion drove Herstam and Allen to use their own money, turn their homes into shelters for animals, and give up their free time to establish HALO Animal Rescue, but they wouldn’t have it any other way. Allen says that she and her mother have the same goal: to save as many animals as they can in any way possible, and as far as their resources will go. “We do a phenomenal job using the funds that we have, but we can all do so much more with more hands and money,” Allen says.

If you would like to donate your time or dollars to HALO Animal Rescue, please contact HALO at (602) 971-9222 or visit halorescue.org.

HALO Thrift Boutique is located at 4630 N. Seventh Ave. in Phoenix. Call (602) 274-3444 for information.