Winslow Cleanup projects in full swing

Neighborhood house projects

Houses do not come down by themselves. Many people worked, and are continuing to work, on these clean-up projects. Among them are: Roy Lynch, Ron Lynch, Otis Lundsford, Denny Nelson, Cruz Valdez, Leonard Ragnoli, Norvel and Bo McKinley, John Sosnowski, Randy Pritchard, Rudy and Dodie Montoya, Dee Rodriguez, Marie LaMar, Louis Flores, Lito Gomez, Leonard Griffin Sr. and Jr., Anthony Garcia, Daniel Baca, Joe Robles, Balente Castruita with Roberto and Valentin Castruita, Nick and Tom Breeze, Mike Perry, Vernon and Patsy Poleheptewa, Eleo Petet, Junior Sanchez, Raymond Sanchez, Richard Sanchez, Fire Chief Boney Candelaria, Jimmy Dixon, Susan Warren, Joshua Bay, Martin Vargas. Rosemary Foy with Jim Ferguson and Steve Zukowski from the city, and the help of Waste Management for the Fourth Street house. Rex Hummel is a driving force behind all these volunteers who are making a difference in their neighborhoods.

There are more houses being taken down, so if a name was left off of this list, make sure to write it down and give it to Randy for the next one!

Weed and Seed cleanup at Transcon Lane

More than 40 volunteers came to help clean up near Transcon Lane

This was a community effort and the community turned out for it, more than 40 strong.

Young people came in batches.

From the Children's Theater group: Morgan Taylor, Josh Taylor, Robert Sanchez, Samantha Griffin, and Ryan Muchmore.

From the Skate Park Committee: Matt Taylor, Alan Duran, Chris Norgaard, and Lucas Kirkland.

From the United People Who Care Organization: Michelle Irvin, Jenae Cantrell, Trevor Cantrell, Elizabeth Carter and Kaya Tafoya.

From La Familia: Amanda Ackerman and Donna Gutierrez.

Adults who signed in were:

National Guard from Flagstaff - Frank Swimmer, Tony Trujillo, Bill Janisco, Justin Rpice and Abe Beltran.

Winslow volunteers -

Ruby Flores, Brenda Coates, Dee Rodriguez, Roman Rodriguez I, and Roman Rodriguez III, Bonnie Boles, Raymond Wargo, Bart Gomez, Charles Engels, Sandy Martinez, Diane M. Henebry, Bob Beamish, Eloise DeSpain, Cruz Valdez, Mike Perry, Eugene Williams, Lorraine Williams, Police Chief Steven Garnett and eight officers (some of their signatures were illegible!), Karen Harrison, Taylor Maldonado, Randy Hummel, Leonard Ragnoli, Paul Henry, Otis Lunsford, Woody Smiley, Wally L. Yazzie, Larry Paul, Juliuston Begay, Steven Baca, and Michael Lawrence.

Working at the gate was Louis Flores. Coordinating the event and working on the clean-up was Weed and Seed Coordinator Steve Zukowski. Steve said that some did not sign the register, but Weed and Seed thanks them just as much. Everyone contributed to making what appeared to be an almost impossible task go both smoothly and quickly. It was over by 11 a.m.

The volunteers were treated to lunch at the St. Joseph Hall. Food was served by volunteers led by Ruby Flores. Food was provided by Capt. Tony's, Pizza Hut, Darlene's Town House, Bashas', Wal Mart, McDonalds, Arby's, Flying J, and a cake courtesy of the Children's theater.

The volunteers collected ten scoop loads of bottles by 9 a.m. By 10 a.m. there were more bags of trash than anyone cared to count. All of that went into the large dumpster from Waste Management. Then the Big Cat driven by Andy Romero went into action and began tearing out the tamarisk trees and flattening the area.

Help for the project came from across the state. Leandra Lewis of Arizona Clean and Beautiful donated the trash bags and Glen Holden, vice-mayor of Holbrook brought them up from Phoenix. Frances McCauley of ADOT cleared the access for all the cars, trucks and machines to the site.

The whole site was criss-crossed by beaten paths. Chief Garnett commented that it was not safe for anyone at night. The trees and brush were so high and close together that they also presented a fire hazard in the dry seasons.

Next month another clean-up site will be chosen.

As Sam Sees It

For most of my lifetime, people who taught at the school did coaching in high school. It was only rarely that an "outsider" came to a practice to offer his expertise. Today, we live in the era of volunteer coaches who are not teachers and often are not otherwise associated with the school. Many coaches who are teachers in the metropolitan areas teach at a different school than where they coach. This is neither good nor bad, it is just a fact of life.

Winslow High School has been blessed with one of the best volunteer coaches it has been my privilege to know. Becky Barris is the junior varsity softball coach now, having just finished serving as a volunteer girls' basketball coach. She is excellent. The girls love and respect her. She knows the games and teaches the fundamentals. She does more than that. She instills confidence in the girls and helps them to grow as athletes and as human beings. Becky represents volunteer coaching at its best. She is a businesswoman and not a teacher, but she obviously knows more than a little about young people.

Frank Lopez is another volunteer coach who has been doing a good job for Winslow High School for a number of years. He, too, relates to his players in a unique way and has earned their respect and admiration. There are probably dozens of others who deserve to be saluted for the valuable services they provide for our youth.

My only memory of non-teacher coaches in high school were two professional baseball players who were members of the Tucson Cowboys of the Arizona-Texas League (Now that will date me, won't it?) who came to Casa Grande to spend a day teaching us some of the fundamentals they were especially knowledgeable of. One was the player-manager Don Jameson, who had seen action earlier with the Chicago Cubs. The connection for us was that Bud Younger, the Casa Grande High School coach, spent his summers pitching and occasionally playing second base for the Cowboys. I never forgot some of the things Jameson taught us that day.

Barris is President of the Little League Board for this coming season. That is very good news for the children of Winslow. This program does some good, but has room for improvement in some areas as well. Children who participate in this program can be assured that the highest officer in the organization is capable, fair and will work in their best interests. Not many people do as much for their community as this woman has this year.

Congratulations to WHS basketball players Seth Davis and Hesston Yazzie. Davis has been selected to the Navajo Times All Star Team and Yazzie has been selected to play in the Arizona Coaches Association All Star Game.

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