Much More Than a Food Drive
Gina
Hansen,
PACC’s Volunteer Coordinator asked me to present the Rescued Critters Food
Drive program to a couple of classes at Amphi Middle School last Thursday,
April 25th. As I approached the front of the first class, Gina said
I have 10 or 15 minutes to talk.
Twenty-five
minutes later I was hurrying to end the presentation. What piqued everyone’s
interest was the comment I made about Rescued Critter Food Drive being a
community service program in addition to a pet food drive. Of course, I collect
PACC donations on Sunday, but I also arranged for the city to fix 50-plus
potholes recently and for TEP to fix six broken street lights around the
neighborhood and then clean three very
messy alleys with the help of Pat Tapia, Deputy Director of the
Environmental & General Services Department.
In
between classes, the teacher, Mrs. Coleman took me aside and asked how I
did all those things because she was trying to clean up her neighborhood, too,
but with little success. The first thing I asked her was, did she know her Ward
Council Member? “No.” she replied. Interesting, because that person is the key
to any successful neighborhood clean-up program.
You
do all the paperwork and fill out all the forms and follow up dutifully with
city contacts, but when things go too slowly or not at all, your Ward Council
Member can move mountains. For years, I have worked very closely with Vice
Mayor and Ward 5 Council Member Richard Fimbres, Mark Kerr,
his Chief of Staff and Mary Fimbres, Richard’s wife. They make me an
effective project manager without my having to get into a power struggle with
the process.
Mrs.
Coleman’s
reaction to my comment about the Rescued Critters Food Drive being just one
aspect of a comprehensive neighborhood management program gave me an idea. In
the next few weeks, I am creating a how-to-handbook, if you will, on how to
clean up and maintain a neighborhood. Names, numbers, request forms, city web
links and the rationale behind filling potholes, picking up trash and speaking
to folks without giving into frustration. There are 146 neighborhoods in Tucson
that need help and the city is stepping up, so we’ve got to do the same.
Oh,
and you’ll be happy to learn that Mrs. Coleman is talking to her people
to implement the Rescued Critters Food Drive program at Amphi Middle School
This week we donated 113.3 lbs. of pet food and $126.73 in cash and two checks.
See you Sunday,
Peter
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