Day 3, March 30 - Phoenix
Kindness Arizona came to a close on Thursday with a pair of stops in the Phoenix Metro area, and the theme - as it has been all week - was about truly giving back to those in need. The morning event benefited Amanda Hope Rainbow Angels, who does outstanding work for pediatric cancer patients and their families not only locally in the state, but around the world. Similarly, GCU CityServe, the final stop on this year's Fiesta Bowl Kindness Arizona tour, is impacting thousands of people in Arizona by providing transformational solutions to individuals and families through delivering essential home items in emergency situations.
PREPARE CARE PACKAGES FOR PEDIATRIC CANCER PATIENTS AND FAMILIES
Maybe it was coincidence that Kindness Arizona visited
Amanda Hope Rainbow Angels 10 years to the day that its namesake, Amanda Hope, lost her battle to Leukemia. Regardless, the first stop on the final day of this year's tour was inspiring - and tested everyone's artistic talents.
Amanda Hope Rainbow Angels was founded in 2012 to celebrate Amanda's life. After three years of chemotherapy, Amanda went into remission and returned to her normal life, only for cancer to rear its ugly head again in the form of a mass in her brain. Throughout her second battle with Leukemia, Amanda never wavered. Today, Amanda Hope Rainbow Angels services nearly 1,000 people a year in Arizona and sends out more than 100 Comfycozy's for Chemo - inspired by Amanda - around the world each month.
At their location just outside of Downtown Phoenix, Amanda Hope Rainbow Angels provide support to pediatric patients, families and siblings through counseling and financial assistance among other avenues. Fiesta Bowl staff and volunteers wrote 300 birthday cards for distribution, helped build seven blankets and crafted 75 jewelry kits, and the stop had a rewarding ending with a care package personally delivered to a family with a pediatric cancer patient.
"Here in Arizona, we serve 1,000 people a year through our various programs," said Jessie Swygert, Director of Operations for Amanda Hope Rainbow Angels. "Fiesta Bowl and all of the volunteers today made a big difference. Our warriors just want to know that there are people cheering them on and supporting them. Creating small gifts can be a big moment for them and provide a lot of joy and happiness. It may seem small, but it can go a really long way. A lot of people together can make a big impact."
SORT AND BUNDLE EMERGENCY RELIEF ITEMS
Do you ever wonder what happens with items you return to the store? Or items that are discontinued? Unfortunately, too often, they end up at a landfill. Enter GCU CityServe, the only CityServe location in Arizona. Since its inception in September 2021, GCU CityServe has distributed $7 million of goods to over 120 partners and 14,000 families in need across the state.
Receiving items from stores such as Costco, Amazon and Walmart, GCU CityServe takes in items, blindly, that were returned, overstocked or discontinued. The location has no idea what they receive, such as this morning via a shipment from Amazon, until boxes are opened. Run fully off volunteers, Fiesta Bowl Kindness Arizona provided the workforce on Thursday to sort and organize nearly 30 pallets of household items before loading up a delivery truck, that was later driven (ceremoniously) by Spirit and GCU's Thunder. The items, ranging from beds and sofas, to bluetooth speakers, to kayaks and lawnmowers, are used to furnish apartments and homes from start to finish following emergency situations.
"Kindness Arizona means, to me, wrapping your arms around individuals or families who are truly in need. We live in a world of excess today, so the volunteers are sorting items and it's neat to be part of an organization who is dedicated to serving the less fortunate," said Nathan Cooper, GCU CityServe HUB Manager. "I'd really like to thank the Fiesta Bowl organization as a whole for not only the grant we received through them, but for coming out to help us because we are run off of volunteers. It's amazing to share our mission to them and I look forward to future events with Fiesta Bowl Charities."
Day 2, March 29 - West Valley
It may have been a long commute out to Surprise, but it's not every day that you get to be amongst more than 100 farm animals. Day 2 of Kindness Arizona looked a little different with the caravan traveling to Farm Angels Sanctuary to feed farm animals and clean their home. After the morning spent in Surprise, Kindness Arizona stayed out in the West Valley in Glendale and hosted one of Fiesta Bowl Charities' premier events with a Football Field Dedication at O'Neil Park. To see the kids' reactions to their new football field was truly memorable and completed the Sports Complex at O'Neil Park servicing more than 6,000 children in South Glendale.
PROVIDE ANIMAL CARE AND CLEANING
Farm Angels Sanctuary is a nonprofit forever home to more than 150 farm animals, and Fiesta Bowl staff and volunteers were greeted by many of them immediately. After being introduced to three baby goats (with diapers on nonetheless!), we moved into the backyard full of goats, pigs, turkeys and llamas just to name a few. Beyond the gate was a separate area for horses and cows. It was a sight to see. The best part was seeing all of the animals happy and among each other, feeding on the same hay and sharing the same home.
Farm Angels Sanctuary is a safe haven for all of these animals and will be their forever home as they're not just rehabilitated and moved to a new home. In fact, just yesterday, the sanctuary received six chickens straight from Oahu, Hawaii. The chickens were kept in the garage as the cold Arizona morning was a bit too much for them.
The time there was spent picking up hay off the ground and bagging it, in addition to feeding some of the animals and cleaning up the pens that housed baby pigs and other animals. All of the animals were anything but shy and loved having Fiesta Bowl Charities and Kindness Arizona in their home!
"Fiesta Bowl fits right into the Sanctuary's mission of kindness and compassion for animals. Everything that is done here is focused on the animals and making life better for them," said Lisa Buccigrosse, Owner and Operator of Farm Angels Sanctuary. "Through Kindness Arizona, there was lots of help cleaning up. With this many animals, clean up is a daily chore here and Fiesta Bowl really knocked it out today and got a lot done which usually takes a lot more hours. I feel very blessed to have Fiesta Bowl out here today."
FIESTA BOWL SPORTS COMPLEX FOOTBALL FIELD DEDICATION
The exact playing surface from the 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bowl at Chase Field found its new home at O'Neil Park in Glendale, completing the Fiesta Bowl Sports Complex which started last November. Following the
build of two playgrounds and a multi-purpose sport court late fall, Wednesday's dedication of the Guaranteed Rate Bowl football field was the finishing touch on the revamped O'Neil Park.
Kids from the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley were led by Spirit, our star mascot, in a bunch of drills, which set the mood for the hour-long dedication. Energy was high with one kid proudly expressing, "I feel like I'm in the NFL," and that fed right into the formal ceremony. With Fiesta Bowl Executive Director & CEO Erik Moses kicking off the ceremony and a brand new scoreboard proudly displaying "Fiesta Bowl Field" in the background, representatives from partners PNC Bank, AZSTA, BHHS Legacy Foundation and the City of Glendale shared remarks about what the sports complex will mean to this specific Glendale community, which was in dire need of a safe playspace for its youth.
"There are a few things that you can do for a location that will have a direct, positive impact that you can see and feel, like putting this Sports Complex together at O'Neil Park," said Moses. "Young people take cues from what the adults do around them. If you live in a neighborhood where your school or parks look like nobody is invested in them, you think people don't care about you; they don't see you, they don't hear you. By making this type of investment, along with our partners, the young people and their families know that they are seen and heard and that we, and the City of Glendale, is invested in them."
Day 1, March 28 - Tempe
The third year of Fiesta Bowl Kindness Arizona got underway in Tempe at LoPiano Park, right alongside Tempe Town Lake. Despite the cooler-than-normal temperatures across the Valley of the Sun of late, volunteers and staff from the Fiesta Bowl and Keep Tempe Beautiful were greeted with sunshine and slightly toasty conditions by the end of the morning. Tuesday ended with Fiesta Bowl Charities' sixth Teacher Lounge refresh at Kyrene del Norte - Dual Language Academy, providing a rewarding conclusion to the first day of Kindness Arizona.
TRASH COLLECTION
LoPiano Park is a 13-acre park that is nestled within Downtown Tempe and connects to both Tempe Town Lake and Mesa's Riverview Park. Located right beneath the Loop 202 presents challenges with trash falling off the 202 and littering the park, which also serves as a bosque habitat for wildlife and native trees.
Partnering with Arizona Office of Tourism and
Keep Tempe Beautiful, a nonprofit, local chapter of Keep America Beautiful launched in 2021, Kindness Arizona kicked off with a canvas of LoPiano Park to pickup trash and litter from the high-trafficked community location. Aside from the run-of-the-mill trash collection, other "unusual" items included shoes and even a floppy disk! All in all, it was a great way to start this year's Kindness Arizona tour with more than 300 pounds of trash and recycling collected.
"Keep Tempe Beautiful's mission is to ensure the sustainability and beautification of the City of Tempe. Fiesta Bowl Charities and Kindness Arizona will help us push that mission forward because our park and street cleanups are our premier events," said Joe Forte, Executive Director and Founder of Keep Tempe Beautiful. "By putting a spotlight on what we're doing, it really amplifies that message and it's about getting people into the habit of picking up trash. When you come out here and see you a piece of trash, you start to notice it everywhere. Hopefully it encourages people to pick up that piece of trash on the ground in their day-to-day lives."
TEACHER LOUNGE REFRESH
Kindness Arizona's tour of Tempe concluded at Kyrene del Norte - Dual Language Academy, where the teachers and staff saw their refreshed Teacher Lounge for the first time. It was safe to say that their Tuesday ended on a bright note, quite literally with the bright orange walls lining their new staff space.
In the words of Jaime Soto, the school's principal, seeing the new Teacher Lounge was like going from a gloomy, cloudy day to a warm, Arizona day. The refreshed space included new appliances, new furniture and a quiet room. Of course, it wouldn't be a Fiesta Bowl Charities project without words of encouragement from Yellow Jackets, Board of Directors, Ambassadors and Staff to the teachers on a board on the wall. With youth and education being two of the Fiesta Bowl's three pillars, the Teacher Lounge was just the latest example of the organization's commitment to educators across the state.
"I am very excited for our school to have the Fiesta Bowl come in and give us a new lounge. We do have a PTO who takes care of us, but to have the extra support means so much to us to be able to go in there and it's a breath of fresh air from the busy day of teaching kids," said Veronica Speir, a first grade teacher at Kyrene del Norte - Dual Language Academy. "I screamed because it's so spectacular. It's bright and it's cheery and it's completely transformed."
