Queen Creek Unified’s C.A.F.E. events emphasize community involvement

Queen Creek Unified School District’s community and family engagement, or C.A.F.E., events are meetings where local businesses, faith leaders, parents and volunteers come together with one shared goal — supporting students.

These events create a space for collaboration, problem-solving and relationship-building with school principals with the aim of ensuring that every student benefits from the strength of their community.

“It is one of the few places where you could go as a business owner and a parent and be electrified by the excitement of how we can build better schools, better community, better connections for the best part of our culture, our kids,” stated Mark Leonard, owner of Jeremiah’s Italian Ice of Queen Creek, in a district press release.

Leonard shared how participants rallied around principals and PTOs, offering more ideas than could be used in one day.

“It’s not about my business,” he stated. “It’s about helping one another. This is what the world needs right now.”

For community leaders like Kurt McReynolds, campus pastor at Christ Church in the Valley, C.A.F.E. is an opportunity to meet real needs.

“Every time I come, it’s a great opportunity to connect with people and learn about the school,” McReynolds stated in the release. “When a principal says, ‘Here’s a big project we have,’ we can ask, ‘Can we help directly, or do we know someone who can jump in?’”

He recalled one example from the meeting — filling a teacher resource center with snacks and beverages, a project multiple partners agreed to support.

Luis Guerrero, senior project engineer for McCarthy Building Companies, attended his first C.A.F.E. and walked away impressed.

“It’s really cool how the district brings in industry and community partners to help out in building better schools,” he stated in the release.

Guerrero’s team brainstormed ways to enrich Mountain Trail Academy’s new STEAM lab by introducing students to Building Information Modeling, giving them hands-on experiences in engineering and construction concepts.

The goal of C.A.F.E. is to bridge the gap between schools and the broader community, ensuring students see that countless people are invested in their success, the release continued.