A Letter From Our Board President
For me, the holidays are always a time of reflection. Did I reach my personal goals for this year? How did I weather the changes and challenges I experienced? Did I grow and embrace the exciting new opportunities and people that came into my life? These are questions that come up for class members, too, as they progress through the program year. That’s because personal growth and reflection are a hallmark of the Tempe Leadership experience. I’ve always said that what makes Tempe Leadership so life-changing is the relationships you develop. Watching the magic happen this year has been my favorite part of leading this amazing group of people.
It seems like just yesterday we were choosing the members of Class XXXIII and Tempe Youth Leadership Class XIX. As we look ahead to the second half of the program year, I wanted to give you a quick recap of what we’ve accomplished so far and what’s coming up in 2018.
We kicked off our adult program in September with an orientation weekend for the 21 members of Class XXXIII at Saguaro Lake Ranch. Since then, they’ve completed a variety of informative issue days including the Project Walk, Business Day, Human Services Day, ASU Day, and Arts & Culture Day. The 21 members of this year’s youth class held their first Personal Leadership issue day November 4th and traveled to Camp Tontozona for their orientation weekend in mid-November. Alumni, friends, supporters, and members of both the adult and youth classes came together on November 3rd for our annual Aluminate the Night Alumni Reception at Shalimar Country Club, raising net proceeds of $7,500 to benefit Tempe Leadership programs. Thank you to everyone who attended and gave generously! Our next big push is to help Class XXXIII fulfill their project goal of raising $25,000 to install a sensory garden at The Centers for Habilitation (TCH). The sensory garden will provide shaded, interactive space for outdoor recreation, learning and relaxation for the disabled participants of TCH’s programs. We’re excited to partner with our friends at TCH in this wonderful, beneficial project and we hope we can count on your support. We are also looking forward to a fun and engaging day of service with our Tempe Cares event scheduled for Saturday, March 3rd as we install and refurbish a handful of community gardens around the city. We hope you can join us! Finally, look for our 2018-2019 adult program applications to become available in spring of 2018 along with an invitation to our annual recruitment reception.
We hope you had a wonderful 2017. As you think ahead to 2018, we hope you’ll include Tempe Leadership in your plans, stay involved and continue to support the great work we do in our community.
Season’s Greetings from all of us at Tempe Leadership!
Nancy Puffer
Board President