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The 2024 Fiesta Bowl Kindness Arizona wrapped up with a pair of events in Phoenix at Cordova Elementary School and St. Vincent de Paul. Starting the morning at Cordova Elementary, the Fiesta Bowl donated and planted six trees and more than two dozen plants to the school's garden, which serves the entire school's population from students to staff to visitors. In the sixth and final stop this year, the organization's volunteers traded shovels and wheelbarrows for tools to restore and repair bicycles at St. Vincent de Paul.
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PLANTING TREES
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The final count was six trees, 18 tomato plants and 10 strawberry plants, in addition to moving 35 bags of dirt, at the Cordova Elementary School garden. Nestled next to Grand Canyon University, Cordova Elementary is home to more than 600 K-8 students. For these students, including nearly 40 kids in the school's Garden Club, the garden is a place for educational learning where they can build reading, math and social skills.
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"We were very excited to have Fiesta Bowl Kindness Arizona come out and help us with our garden," said Dr. Sharon Spearman, Cordova Elementary School Principal. "Our garden is here to support our students' academics and well-being. Students come out here to learn about agriculture and pollination, plant life cycles and involves math, reading, writing and science. But the garden is open to students, staff and visitors. They are welcome to come, relax and meditate and take time for themselves."
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The Cordova garden started with a singular bed in 2018 and is now up to 16 beds which houses fruits and vegetables. With the help of five students from the Garden Club, the Fiesta Bowl staff and volunteers planted four fruit trees (orange, lemon, plum and lime) within the garden along with two floral trees (hibiscus and jasmine) in the courtyard. The students also enjoyed some art time, drawing and designing signs to place in the plant beds.
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REPAIR AND RESTORE BICYCLES
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For many people, they may not have the necessary transportation resources to get to school, work or even medical appointments. That's where the efforts that
St. Vincent de Paul makes in their bike shop comes into the forefront. St. Vincent de Paul takes in donated bikes from the communities and restores them before donating them back out during its 2nd Chance Bike Drive every September. On average, the nonprofit organization receives between 10-20 bikes weekly. Last year, they received 1,700 bikes, about 250 more than in 2022.
Following the restoration, those bikes can then go to both adults and youth who need it while improving access to education, economic opportunities and physical and mental health. This is in addition to the 7,000 daily meals served through four charity dining rooms and partner organizations. To conclude this year's Fiesta Bowl Kindness Arizona, the Fiesta Bowl power washed and repaired 14 bicycles by replacing flat tires for future donation before testing them for quality control. A simple item such as a bicycle, that many take for granted, gives so many people hope and left the Fiesta Bowl staff and volunteers with a rewarding experience - and a new skillset!
"Kindness Arizona is just an example of what the Fiesta Bowl does every day," said Ryan Corry, Chief Philanthropy Officer at St. Vincent de Paul. "To have kindness spread this way with these bikes, so we can get them to kids and adults who really need them, that really helps shape the soul of our city. With all of us caring for one another, we are making sure that no Arizonan gets left without a meal or some wheels. When we see someone get a bike for the first time, it's a mixture of joy and relief. Joy because something is theirs and relief because we've helped solve a problem for them."
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After spreading kindness primarily in the Valley the last two years, Fiesta Bowl staff and volunteers hopped in a bus and traveled up the I-17 to Cottonwood bright and early on second day of this year's Kindness Arizona. Visiting Manzanita Outreach, the largest food assistance provider in Yavapai County was extremely rewarding given the work that the organization does. In addition to supplying MO Packs for Teachers - snack boxes for teachers to distribute in their classrooms - Manzanita Outreach also hosts drive through community drives to provide food to 800 families every month. Following the trip north, the Kindness Arizona bus made its way back to the Valley to donate 120 cases of water bottles to The Salvation Army. Food insecurity and heat relief are two areas of immense need and Kindness Arizona was proud to support both causes.
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PACKING SNACK BOXES FOR TEACHERS
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After two hours of preparing snack boxes for distribution, the group of Fiesta Bowl staff and volunteers gathered for closing remarks in which the following words were said: "every little thing counts." While it may not seem like much, the Fiesta Bowl's first stop of day two of Kindness Arizona at
Manzanita Outreach resulted in packing enough Nutri-Grain bars to serve 200 classrooms, fruit bars to serve 300 classrooms, granola bars to serve 500 classrooms and 200 bags of trail mix.
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Taking Kindness Arizona out of the greater Phoenix area was a rewarding one with the first stop in Cottonwood in the four-year history of the tour. Manzanita Outreach, a 2023 Fiesta Bowl Charities Grant Recipient, serves 43 schools across the Verde Valley by providing snack boxes directly to teachers, which in turns goes directly to students among its host of other services. With a mission of sharing abundance of resources with dignity and joy, Manzanita Outreach assists more than 650 classrooms annually in 29 different school districts. As a result of receiving the Fiesta Bowl Charities grant, Manzanita Outreach hopes to expand their services outside of the Verde Valley.
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"At Manzanita Outreach, we are focused on filling the gap that exists in food insecurity and that relates to the Fiesta Bowl and the acts of kindness," said Kate Morrill, Grants Manager at Manzanita Outreach. "There is a great community in Arizona with neighbors who are committed to supporting and helping one another. Through organizations like Fiesta Bowl and Manzanita Outreach we are able to collaborate and achieve the goals of getting the abundance of resources to communities in need."
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WATER DONATION FOR HEAT RELIEF STATIONS
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While Arizona may not be prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes or tornadoes, there is a very serious threat every summer. Last year, Phoenix experienced a record-setting summer in more ways than one. There were the 31 consecutive days of reaching 110 degrees or hotter, or the month of July having an average temperature of 102.5 degrees making Phoenix the first major U.S. city to ever average more than 100 degrees in a month. Unfortunately, that led to more than 600 heat-related deaths in 2023, which made the final stop of the day all the more important.
The Salvation Army Phoenix supports Valley residents through its Hydrate AZ program consisting of five levels of cooling stations by providing water and heat relief to more than 60,000 people last year alone. In support of The Salvation Army, whom the Fiesta Bowl partners annually during the holidays through one of its Guaranteed Rate Bowl teams participating in a team outreach event at their Christmas Day breakfast, the Fiesta Bowl donated 120 cases of water bottles (3,840 bottles total) in preparation for the upcoming summer months. The organization's stop at The Salvation Army warehouse in downtown Phoenix also included packaging 400 heat relief kits, which will have a statewide reach beyond the Phoenix metro area.
"Providing heat relief for natives of Arizona is so important; it really is a matter of life and death. Last year, The Salvation Army helped 60,000 people with heat relief at the cooling centers and mobile units," said Lt. Colonel Lisa Smith, Divisional Social Services Officer at The Salvation Army. "This year we expect to do even more and thank you to the Fiesta Bowl Organization and all of the volunteers who have come to help. The water is a primary focus in our heat relief and the hygiene kits will come in handy as well. I can't say thank you enough."
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Day 1, March 26
The fourth annual Fiesta Bowl Kindness Arizona kicked off at Sojourner Center, a safe haven from domestic violence in Arizona by providing shelter and support services to adults, children and pets. Starting off the community-serving tour in Phoenix, the Fiesta Bowl staff and volunteers traveled to the East Valley in the afternoon to Shepherd Junior High School, where the school's teachers and staff were treated to the organization's seventh Teacher Lounge refresh to end the first day of this year's Kindness Arizona.
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HOUSING BEAUTIFICATION
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Sojourner Center has offered shelter beds and transitional housing apartments in Arizona since 1977, providing a refuge for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. Annually, Sojourner Center serves over 1,000 survivors each year, who may live at the Sojourner Center for up to two years, while gaining financial independence, increase their income and receive daycare for their children, who make up over 60% of the center's population. The Sojourner Center offers a wide variety of services ranging from case management to a donation resource center which is home to everything from shoes and clothes to handbags and wall decor.
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Along with members of Salt River Project (SRP), a supporting partner of Kindness Arizona, Fiesta Bowl staff and volunteers painted three housing apartments that will be immediately used, providing immediate impact for families and children to receive safety and support that they need. From the ceiling to the baseboards, 20 volunteers rolled up their sleeves and broke out the rollers and brushes to beautify the three units. The Fiesta Bowl also donated 12 5-gallon buckets of paint for Sojourner Center to use on future housing apartments.
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"Bringing kindness into the community, especially to somewhere like Sojourner Center, is so important because you're showing survivors and their kids that they are cared for and that their communities are not just within these walls," said Berkley Harris, Assistant Director of Community Engagement at Sojourner Center. "Communities outside care for them too. That is so important when you're talking about survivors of domestic violence because they've isolated. Fiesta Bowl is bringing that community to them and we thank you for that."
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TEACHERÂ LOUNGE REFRESH
Spread across the brand new desert-themed mural in the refreshed Teacher Lounge at Shepherd Junior High School were the words "Do all things with kindness." Those words rang true and it was the little things that brought the biggest smiles to the faces of the teachers and staff upon walking into their new lounge. A brand new refrigerator, stocked with water and soda, was a big hit, as were the new dining tables. The refreshed space is now a space that all of the teachers want to spend time in.
"I'm overwhelmed. It exceeded any expectations that I could've possibly had. It was barren before and people didn't want to go in there," said Jill Benza, Shepherd Junior High School principal. "Walking in, I started to cry. It's beautiful. The teachers at Shepherd are my work family and I want them to have a family room. That's what it feels like now with the cute area with the couch and a TV. People are already talking about who's going to eat lunch in there."
The fact that Shepherd Junior High School, in the Mesa Public Schools district, received its new Teacher Lounge during Kindness Arizona was fitting given the school's kindness theme. After all Benza's dream is for Shepherd to be the "kindness capital of Mesa Public Schools." Now the staff servicing nearly 600 students has a refreshed space to hold potlucks - a school staple - along the custom bar on the wall and a TV for their presentations. Additional amenities included a coffee bar, a couch and several dining tables all fitting within a cool, green color scheme designed to provide a relaxing and decompressing environment.
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