Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 83

I El Mirage GlendaTe Litchfield Park Peoria Phoenix Sun City Sun City West Surprise Youngtown Wickenburg Northwest ODMMUNT THE PHOENIX GAZETTE THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC I Monday, May 6, 1991 1W I 3 Valley men set to buy Sun City Stadium By Lorl Baker Staff writer been used since December. A lease agreement with an option to buy was expected to be signed this week, said Gary Kotin, president of Kay-Kay Realty Corp. in Scottsdale, an asset manager for the RTC. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. "It's every man's fantasy to own a ball field," said Bill Dugan, a Phoenix computer specialist and one of the prospective owners.

school concert band from Flagstaff and the Sun City-based Christopher Girls are to perform, said Tom McCanna, the chamber's executive director. About 170 Men's Senior Baseball League games are scheduled from Friday through October. Many community events are planned for the stadium, including a Fourth of July fireworks display, recreational vehicle and car shows, and con-See STADIUM, Page 3 Valley and competition is fierce," Dugan said. "We wanted to get a place going for our own league." The league for players age 30-plus from throughout the Valley has been staging games in Chandler, Mesa and Phoenix. If the agreement is approved with the RTC, the Northwest Chamber of Commerce will present an open house at 7 p.m.

Thursday at the stadium. A 90-piece high Dugan, Craig Kimmell and Terry Van Gundy said they are buying the stadium primarily to provide a place for the 4-year-old Men's Senior Baseball League to play. Dugan is the league's president; Kimmell, a Phoenix salesman, is vice president; and Van Gundy, a self-employed Mesa auto auctioneer, is the commissioner. "There is a lack of playing fields in the SUN CITY Sun City Stadium likely will have new owners this week, and an open house is planned Thursday to celebrate the facility's reopening. Using the corporate name Field of Dreams, three Valley men have signed a letter of intent with the U.S.

Resolution Trust Corp. to purchase the stadium, 111th and Grand avenues, which has not WW Children benefited by refunds By Lorl Baker Staff writer iv -1 JL A "When I first got here, I was talking to some guys in Glendale and they thought Thunderbird trained terrorists. There are a lot of foreign students, and they decided that's what we did here." Hugh Crafton SUN CITIES Demonstrating their concern for northwest Valley children, more than 200 Sun Citians have donated nearly $11,000 from their school tax rebates and their own pockets. The Sun Cities Area Children's Foundation which is soliciting donations of the rebates from individuals and businesses, reports that donations have more than doubled in about two weeks. On April 12, the non-profit organization had received about $5,000.

"About half of the donations are people signing over their rebate checks, and the other half are personal checks. That shows that many people are donating more than their rebates," said John Heisel, foundation treasurer. He said that while the average household is receiving a rebate of $30, the foundation has received many $50 donations and even a $500 contribution. Donations often are accompanied by notes saying, "Great idea" and "We support your effort," Heisel said. Money will be used to provide for "desperate" needs of children, such as clothing, food, summer programs and tutoring, said Al Spanjer, publicity man for the foundation.

If the group meets its $1 million goal for a trust fund, money from interest will be used annually to provide for children's needs. The foundation is contracting with the Valley of the Sun United Way, which will recommend ways to spend the money. Since February the state has been issuing rebates of the so-called Sun City school tax, which was declared unconstitutional in 1989 by a Superior Court judge. The tax, which was levied in areas where there was no organized school district, had been challenged by the Sun City Taxpayers Association. Individuals were taxed 50 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, and if the tax had not been challenged, homeowners would have paid $4.72 per $100 by 1997.

See REFUND, Page 5 Scott Troyanos Staff photographer Hugh Crafton, student volunteer chairman at the American break on campus. His efforts have brought a dramatic Graduate School of International Management, takes a Increase in charitable work at the Institution. Student boosts volunteerism at American Graduate School By Susan Felt Staff writer Budget share for ASU West still undecided He shares the same goal as Thunderbird's new president, Roy Herberger, and that is to make the graduate school as well known in the local community as it is overseas. "When I first got here, I was talking to some guys in Glendale, and they thought Thunderbird trained terrorists," Crafton said. "There are a lot of foreign students, and they decided that's what we did here." Although Crafton would be volunteering his time and talents to the Valley community even if he were not the campus volunteer chairman, he sees students working in the community as volunteers to be a natural vehicle in educating the public about the resource that exists at the corner of 59th Avenue and Greenway Road.

"People don't know what it is, and they don't know what to call it," he said. "I don't care what they call us, See HUGH, Page 7 campus, 15249 N. 59th into a popular pastime. For Crafton, getting folks who need something together with folks who have something to give is second nature. A former Eagle Scout from Knoxville, Crafton was community service coordinator for his college fraternity.

He automatically looked for a volunteer project when he entered American Graduate School, commonly known as Thunderbird, more than a year ago. He looks at volunteering quite simply: "It breaks up your week. You meet some new people and you get different experiences." Crafton became the official volunteer committee chairman quite unofficially during a Glendale Community Council luncheon, when the former chairman introduced him as her successor. Crafton took to the job with zeal. Glendale The request was simple: someone who spoke Swahili and English and could translate for refugees from Zaire.

Within 20 minutes, Hugh Crafton had not just one person who spoke Swahili, but three. And not only could they speak both languages, but one spoke French and Russian, too. Granted, Crafton, 24, operates from the American Graduate School of International Management, which boasts a student body where the majority of students are fluent in at least two languages. The students are training to be international business managers. But it is Crafton's efficiency, doggedness and sweet Southern charm that has turned volunteerism at the Aide knows problems of learning-disabled firsthand By Julia Jones Staff writer By Susan Felt Staff writer PHOENIX Although the state Senate restored $2.3 million to Arizona State University West's proposed budget, it was anyone's guess whether the fledgling branch campus would finally emerge from the budget battle with any increase.

"I'm very cautious," ASU West Provost Vernon Lattin said late last week after the Senate handed back to the House its version of Gov. Fife Symington's $3.46 billion budget. The Senate's version restored another $13.7 million to the three state universities, including ASU's 3-year-old west-side branch being built at 47th Avenue and Thunderbird Road. Symington's proposed budget cut about $16 million from the Joint Legislative Budget Committee's recommendation for spending for ASU and ASU West, Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona. Of the universities, ASU's westside branch took the biggest hit 8.5 percent below what the JLBC had proposed, Lattin said.

ASU West had requested about $38 million originally. The JLBC knocked off about $10 million and Symington's budget-makers took another $2.3 million, Lattin said. The threatened cuts rallied ASU West community supporters and especially Sun Cities residents when Lattin said that the additional cuts could mean closing the doors of the Sundome Center for the Performing Arts. About $260,000 of the branch campus' See ASU WEST, Page 2 r- 5 label: mild mental retardation. By then, the taunts from schoolmates had already begun.

"You stupid retard, you're not worth dirt, so have some," she recalls that one boy hollered as he threw a handful of sand on her. When she was in her early 20s, her fragile world took another direct hit: Her mother died of cancer. Tager remembers becoming suicidal, having a "breakdown," spending some time in a hospital, where she got a new label: Bipolar disorder, medicine's new word for manic-depressive mental illness. Sometimes she has auditory hallucinations; she is plagued with nightmares that interrupt her sleep. The medication she takes to relieve those symptoms makes her hand tremble slightly.

"Mental illness is a hidden disability," Tager said. "People don't think you have a disability at all, that you're making it up. Or, they think the problem isn't important because they can't see it. "You can try explaining, but people say, 'She's just making it or 'she's just See KATIE, Page 2 bIf -J GLENDALE Katie Tager isn't much for hanging labels on people. As far as she's concerned, the students in the special education classroom at Isaac Imes Elementary School, where she's a volunteer aide, are just kids.

"But I know where these kids are coming from because I was there," said Tager, a slim, quiet woman with a hesitant smile. Most of the students in her classroom are learning-disabled, said the teacher, Nora Mendez; a few are educable mentally handicapped. "Sometimes their self-esteem is low," Mendez said. Tager, 37, knows all about that. "Sometimes mine is, too," she said.

Back in her home state of Maryland, her parents realized that she was slower to sit and walk than their other children; medical experts said Katie had a mild development delay. When she had trouble with academics in the first grade, they added another I JLi Nancy Enqebretson staff photographer Volunteer aide Katie Tager helps Mark Nieves, 6, with his writing lesson In Nora Mendez's special education class at Isaac Imes Elementary School. Tager, who is mentally handicapped, is writing a book, "I'm Free to Be Me,".