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Guest Commentary

Maple: Good things happen from those who care

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I started writing this piece by thinking about how and what happened in Sun City in the beginning and just how do we have a most unusual community to enjoy today.

Del Webb, after years of experience designing all different kinds of buildings from a grocery store to a casino in Las Vegas to an Air Force base and even an entire community in southern Arizona, had this off-the-wall idea of building an “active retirement community” and to think that he chose to build it, of all places, in a desert. No one had ever done anything like this before and many of his friends and advisors scoffed at his zany idea. But he cared. He built it anyway.

People came from all over the U.S. to the desert to see what Del Webb’s dream was all about. They bought into his new idea of an active retirement community. What they found was a place to enjoy the winter months in the sun. They found that this builder had built everything, already in place, that a winter vacationer would want and enjoy. Many came to purchase a second home in the sun primarily to get out of the cold, but many started moving here as their permanent home.

Some of residents who cared formed the Sun City Civic Association as a governing body for this community of a bunch of houses with amenities and no formal town. It was without a city council, police department or taxes to run the community as a town or city. The group of residents realized that the new community would need to be organized somehow. Even though everyone was enjoying themselves and were of similar ages and desires, they knew that there should be order and rules for all to live together peacefully.

It was, at this time, that the Sun City Civic Association formed a set of rules for everyone to follow and the rules were voted on and put in place by those early residents. They made those rules mandatory for all to follow. They became what was later called the covenants, conditions and restrictions. There has been several changes to the CC&Rs over the years and all changes have been voted on and approved by Sun City residents. So those rules were the desire of the people, not one organization. 

In my opinion, those SCCA officials made one mistake — they set up the funding of the homeowner association to manage the CC&Rs for the community under voluntary membership instead of making membership mandatory like all other HOAs. I wasn’t there when all this was decided by the SCCA, but they probably thought that all residents, then and down the road, would be so involved and caring about their community, they would all want to have a stake in their community and be a member of the HOA. If you are not a member of Sun City Home Owners Association and would like to show everyone that you really care about your community, please contact Membership at 623-974-4718 or by email at Membership@suncityhoa.org. The office is at 10401 W Coggins Drive, just south of Grand Avenue and west of 103rd Avenue. Stop in and see for yourself what SCHOA is all about. Membership is only $25 per household per year. An absolute bargain.

SCHOA has done a most unbelievably great job of enforcing the rules that affects all of us residents. Many of us who care are members of SCHOA and support all their efforts in seeing to it that our community remains the beautiful and desirable community that it is. It is like SCHOA is doing all this with their hands tied behind their back, as there is no city council or police department to physically maintain order. I, for one, applaud the work they do

Besides enforcing the CC&Rs, SCHOA has and continues to support many other worthwhile projects. One of those programs is a little-known project called Resident Assistance and Maintenance Program. This program is for single family homeowners who are unable physically and/or simply in a hardship financially and they cannot clean their yards themselves. Once, qualified, SCHOA, at no cost to the homeowner, will have volunteers and/or hire a Sun City business to clean the yard for the owner and bring their property back into compliance with the CC&Rs. That program was formed by more of those who care.

SCHOA Foundation was formed by more of those who care to help with the RAMP program and the walls program. SCHOA Foundation was formed as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and receives tax deductible donations to help fund RAMP and to fund the walls. These donations go to repainting some 13 miles of common painted walls throughout Sun City along busy streets like Bell Road, 99th Avenue and Olive Avenue, just to name a few.

There are many ways that you can help the SCHOA Foundation fund these projects. The Foundation is a qualified charitable nonprofit organization under the Arizona QCO program, which allows you to deduct your donations from your state income taxes. That is a win-win situation.

If you shop from Amazon (and who doesn’t), they have a program called Amazon Smile, which they will donate to SCHOA Foundation based on your purchases. Here’s how. Visit smile.amazon.com on your browser and sign in with your Amazon.com credentials. Choose SCHOA Foundation as the charitable organization to receive donations and start shopping. It is that simple. Again, a win-win situation. Tell your friends and relatives about Amazon Smile.

You can set up your will to set aside a portion of your estate when you die to make a donation to SCHOA Foundation. We have received several donations this way. Contact us at 623-974-4718 if you want to make a donation or have any questions.

It is wonderful that we have so many of those who care people in this world. If you read this entire article, I am certain that you are also one of those who care. Many Thanks for caring.