By Rusty Bradshaw
Mail | Twitter: @SunCitiesEditor

What difference does a community motto make? Plenty, according to some residents.

Barb Wagers, a Del Webb Sun Cities Museum volunteer and multi-generation Sun City resident, believes Recreation Centers of Sun City officials should re-embrace the phrase “City of Volunteers.” She made a plea to the RCSC board during the April 11 member director exchange meeting to change the wording on the corporation’s electronic marquees on its properties.

The marquees now proclaim Sun City to be “The Original Fun City.” Wagers wants to phrase to revert to “City of Volunteers.”

“The ‘City of Volunteers’ goes back to the very early history of the community,” Wager said. “There is no reference in the history to ‘The Original Fun City.’”

Resident Bill Pearson agreed.

“‘City of Volunteers’ is Sun City’s identity,” he said. “We are the least expensive active adult community because we have volunteers.”

To use any other phrase would be taking away the community’s identity, he added.

The use of “The Original Fun City” began several years ago when RCSC officials redesigned their logos and launched a rebranding. That included replacing welcome signs at major entry points to the community that had the phrase on it. Those signs were replaced this year by the Sun City PRIDES that went back to the original design that include the phrase “City of Volunteers.” But the RCSC marquees continue to use the fun city phrase.

“Taking away that volunteer identity, along with COVID, has made it difficult for clubs and organizations to get volunteers,” Pearson said.

Wagers believes, after talking with three Sun City historians, the phrase switch originated with Jan Ek, former RCSC general manager.

“It is my understanding she wanted to show that Sun City was fun,” Wagers said. “She apparently believed using ‘City of Volunteers’ implied residents would be working rather than having fun.”

While Wagers only referenced the property marquees, RCSC continues to use “The Original Fun City” in its logo, on its website and social media platforms.

Volunteerism is such a staple of Sun City there is a statue at Lakeview Center, 10626 W. Thunderbird Blvd., that honors volunteers.

It all began with Connie Turner, who while attending a planning meeting for Sun City’s 40th anniversary thought, “Why not honor all who volunteer?” She enlisted friends Kay Smith and Betty Jane Peters, who like her were active in the Sun City Clay Club, according to Ed Allen, longtime Sun Cities resident and Del Webb Sun Cities Museum volunteer. The three of them constructed a clay model depicting volunteers, and learned it would take $100,000 to produce a life-size version in bronze.

Despite some obstacles, a Volunteer Statue Committee was formed by the three women and set out to raise the funds, according to Allen. The sculpture included four people and a dog — a Sun City PRIDES member, a Posse member and the “smock lady” was representative of the many who volunteered at the hospital and at Sun City’s two libraries. A bouquet rests beside her, emblematic of the Rose and Garden Club that maintains the Sun Bowl, 10220 N. 107th Ave., rose garden and the Agricultural Club, which donated produce to food banks each year. A young girl represented a student as many residents worked with children in the surrounding communities. Last was “Sparky,” representing pets that had found homes courtesy of the Sun City Animal Rescue.

The sculpture now sits in front of the Lakeview Center, 10626 W. Thunderbird Blvd.

A ceremony was conducted Dec. 16, 2000 to unveil the first two elements of the sculpture. Sponsors and funding then picked up considerably, and the remaining figures were installed at a major ceremony March 17, 2001 — the International Year of the Volunteer.

A year later, the wall was added behind the sculpture and lists sponsors and major donors.