Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 113

BST AMBLE WW The Arizona republic north Deer Valley Moon Valley North Phoenix Paradise Valley Sunnyslope Friday, February 19, 1988 INSIDE: WANT ADS AND COLUMNS 3N PUBLISHED MONDAY AND FRIDAY Preserve gains 32 saguaros as pupils 'Celebrate Arizona' had learned and took a few minutes to sing Arizona, the state song. Three other third-grade classes gathered in areas where holes had been prepared at sites that would give the saguaros proper shade and water. Soon it was time to return to school. Several days later, 23 third-graders in teacher Constance Proffit's class were watching their newly-sprouted cactuses grow in their classroom, and planning to return to the preserve to check on their saguaro. They were proud to share some of their new knowledge.

"If you put too much water on a saguaro, it will drown," Jill Krahl said. "And you have to plant one under a 'nurse tree' so it won't sunburn." Fellow pupil Kelly Reed added, "When saguaros grow big, their By ANN KOONCE The Arizona Republic After a blast from a bus horn and a "Go! Go! Go!" from Principal Dick Buscher, the school doors opened and lines of children walked quickly toward buses on two sides of Indian Bend Elementary School. It was Feb. 12, Saguaro Planting Day. Almost 1,000 pupils in kindergarten through sixth grade at the school, 3633 E.

Thunderbird Road, were getting a chance to watch for a few minutes as 32 saguaros were planted in the Phoenix Mountains Preserve. The morning event was the highlight of the school's annual "Celebrate Arizona" week. The school, in the Paradise Valley Unified School District, had taken out time each day from Feb. 3-12 to learn about ranches, horses, Arizona's pioneers, cowboys and Indian and Spanish culture. Each day, too, there was a saguaro-information time.

Pupils planted saguaro seeds in egg-shell halves filled with potting soil in their classrooms as they learned about the plant. On Feb. 12, buses carried children across the preserve, with a separate location for each grade. Approximately 80 third-graders ended up in Dreamy Draw, south of the park ramadas, to plant four cactuses. The 21 kids in Elaine Deakin's third-grade class nicknamed their plant "Pricky" as Deakin carefully covered the roots with soil.

"What if you get sticked?" one anxious boy asked. "I will be careful," the teacher replied, pointing out that the foot-tall plant had newspaper wrapped ai'ound it for protection. After the planting, the kids recited facts about saguaros they t. sr uti.eur.ii Michael MeisterThe Arizona Republic class prepares to planta saguaro in Constance Proffit's third-grade needles will shade them from the sun." Proffit was glad of a tip she had learned: The sticky part of Band- Aids or tape will pull small cactus needles out of people faster and easier than tweezers or needles. "These kids really learned a lot from the planting," she added, "They are taking things in at this age.

"In the first and second grades, children are going places on a lark, When they get 8 and 9 years old, Sunnyslope leaders hope for public aid in beautifying area V' timmf (-V -f y4hf' -4 Z' 1 i Hit honor of "Celebrate Arizona" week. they start to realize what it's all about. "We will go back to Dreamy Draw soon for a day of outdoor education. We live in the desert, and they need to learn about the desert." committee activities. The Arts Commission selects and later supervises the work of artists who create works for communities through the 1 percent-for-the-arts program.

The program allows up to 1 percent of the city's capital-improvement projects to be spent for artwork. "We hope that some of the accomplishments we can make can set a trend that can be used in other areas of the city," Tate said. The North Mountain committee's Donnell, an engineer for GTE, said he did not know Johnson was organizing a separate beautification effort for Sunnyslope. "His letter caught me a little by surprise, because he hadn't discussed setting up a committee," Donnell said, but adding, "We've talked since then, and everything is in sync (with North Mountain panel's effort). Aesthetics is the key word.

Usually, we don't spend a lot of time on aesthetics, because it's hard to establish what it is." Donnell said he thinks the committee is being created with good timing. "I think he (Johnson) has the right approach. Every time a window on development opens up, we can have something to say about it," he said. North Mountain Village is bounded by Greenway Road on the north, 12th Street on the east, Northern Avenue on the south and the city limits on the west. An area of Sunnyslope that will be especially affected by the improvements includes about a 20-square-acre area from Central Avenue to Third Street and Dunlap Avenue to East Townley Avenue.

A city transit center is planned for Third Stieet and Dunlap. Donnell said he is just as eager as Tate and Johnson to use available resources to establish an identity for Sunnyslope. He said, however, that each neighborhood should stick to its boundaries for improvement projects. "The larger you make the boundaries, the harder it is to focus," he said. Because John C.

Lincoln Hospital Health Center is in the heart of Sunnyslope, the hospital will have a representative on the Spe- Aid, Extra to shield neighbors extensive landscaping and noise-buffering projects to make neighborhoods more habitable. "The city has lost 850 homes to the Squaw Peak right of way," committee Chairman Florence Eckstein told the council. "We believe the council can now find other ways to preserve neighborhoods. "If you do it right, fewer residents may find a need to escape to the suburbs." Ronald Short, the city planning director, filed a report Feb. 4 with Raymond Bladine, deputy city manager, on the parkway.

Short said the fiscal impact of redesigning the parkway the way Parkway, ExD Michael MeisterThe Arizona Republic Riding for confidence who lives in Phoenix, became paralyzed on his left side in 1983 after suffering brain aneurysms and undergoing surgery. "The more you ride, the more confident you get within yourself," says DiNardo, who has owned horses in the past. Overcoming doubts about limitations is a big part of the curriculum at Camelot, a non-profit organization that offers free riding instruction for Valley residents. Pat DiNardo, a retired police detective from Paterson, N.J., sits in his wheelchair waiting his turn to ride his horse at Camelot, a riding program in Scottsdale for people with disabilities. DiNardo, 60, By MARGERY ROSE-CLAPP The Arizona Republic Leaders of some Sunnyslope-area neighborhood associations say they are excited about the prospect of seeing a percentage of city funds spent on public art for their community.

A group called the Sunnyslope Specific Plan Committee was organized seven weeks ago by District 3 Councilman Paul Johnson to look at ways to beautify the Sunnyslope community beyond the usual redevelopment projects. "I think it's a very exciting potential for the Sunnyslope area and for projects this committee could have some impact on," said Mark Tate who will head the Specific Plan Committee. Tate is one of four people who received a letter Dec. 29 from Johnson indicating the councilman's desire to form a committee for a Sunnyslope beautification plan similar to one planned by the North Mountain Village Planning Committee. Ronald Donnell, chairman of the North Mountain committee, Dan Coleman, president and chief executive officer of John C.

Lincoln Hospital Health Center, and Bill Shearer, chairman of the Target Area Committee also received letters from Johnson asking them to nominate people from their areas who might be interested in serving on the Specific Plan Committee. "We're going to be dealing with aesthetic issues and (strive for) neighborhood cohesiveness, which will help developers," said Tate, a project manager for Architectural Alliance, a Phoenix architectural firm. He said the committee will consider using public art, including fountains and sculptures, to improve the community's public places. He said he is eager to put some plans into action soon. "We're afraid that, with all the public and private projects coining on line, if we don't do some specific planning now, we might lose that potential.

We want to tie everything together rather than create an eclectic environment," Tate said. The Phoenix Arts Commission has volunteered to participate in Plan urged parkway's By MARGERY ROSE-CLAPP The Arizona Republic The Phoenix City Council may decide as early as Feb. 23 the fate of a plan submitted by the Squaw Peak Parkway Land Use Committee for preservation of residential neighborhoods adjacent to the parkway from McDowell Road to Glendale Avenue. Council members received the committee's recommendations Feb. 16 and voted to spend the next week reviewing them with city staffers.

Among the considerations is whether the city could afford to follow the committee's suggestions, which calfor land acquisition and 65-year-old preparing for 'niche in life' Overcomes fear of college tests, gears for career in public speaking always hang around after class and ask questions. "I would explain things to her and would spend 30 to 45 minutes discussing. We became great friends." Fleck said that like most students, she had to deal with test anxiety. "I had a terrible time with tests," she said. "I knew the material, but my mind would go absolutely blank.

"I had to work pretty hard to make A's to offset the test grades, but after so many times, it got easier." Other students understood her anxiety. "They seemed to really care about my well-being," she said. "If I had any difficulty studying, I would study with them. "At first I was frightened about going to college, but I found that as I became more relaxed with going to college, the age difference disappeared each semester." Fleck said she developed an interest in a career as a professional public speaker after attending a National Speakers Association meeting Jan. 2 at the Arizona Biltmore Resort Hotel.

She attended the meeting at the invita-tiod of Cavett Robert, founder and By MARY MICKLE Special (or The Republic At the age of 65, Lorraine Fleck has decided what she wants to be. "My goal is to become a public speaker, to take my talents into the public arena and communicate," she said. To accomplish her goal, Fleck returned to school in 1983 to take basic courses and a few electives. "I found a way to combine life's experiences with a degree that would point me in a direction of a new career," she said. Bob Hansen, a close friend for 17 years, invited her to leave the cold climate of Illinois and visit him for Christmas in Payson.

By the end of her stay, Hansen challenged Fleck to return to school and enroll at Gila Pueblo College in Globe, an extension of Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher. Her first classes were oil painting, watercolors and communications. I returned to college after 44 years, oblivious to what awaited me in the next five months," she said. The communications course demanded a 10-page research paper, which Fleck developed into 40 pages. She said she read 29 books, as well as magazines and newspa-piL, to support her topic, "Yester- chairman emeritus of the organization.

"I knew I belonged there," she said. "I found my niche in life, the moment I walked in the room. I felt so comfortable with the group of professional speakers." Fleck said she had heard Robert speak at the Glendale college and had approached him to ask if she was too old to become a public speaker. She said Robert, who recently turned 80, replied, 'Why, you're still wet behind the ears! 'Age is mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't One of the speakers at the Biltmore presentation was Robert's daughter, Lee E.

Robert, a professional public speaker who has developed a method of communication to showcase her talents as a singer and musician. Fleck earned her associate of arts degree in December, but she can still be seen on campus, studying new computer programs, working out at the Fitness Center or coordinating school activities. She will transfer to Arizona State University next fall to study speech. "Learning has been an on-going experience for me," she said. "It Extra "I returned to college after 44 years, oblivious to what awaited me in the next five months." Lorraine Fleck day's Youth." The paper examined forced retirement and the downward mobility of the elderly.

After earning an A in the communications course, Fleck, a Glendale resident, said she discovered her need to write. She returned to Illinois and took college courses in art and writing at two schools before moving to the Valley permanently in 1985 and enrolling at Glendale Community College, taking 19 credit hours in her first semester. One of her first classes was English 101, which was taught by Dr. Jim Reed, communications instructor at the college. Reed said he paid special attention to Fleck because she needed to learn the rules of good writing without losing her original style.

"When I taught her, I stressed the spontaneity and the sparkle in her iwriting, he said. "She would.