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Wednesday, January 1, 2003 Paradise Valley, Arizona THE TOWN OF PARADISE VALLEY INDEPENDENT Page: 1 & 8 Fiesta Bowl to help economy ByAmySeip Independent Newspapers "The Fiesta Bowl is a tremendous economic devel- opment tool for Scottsdale The 2003 Tostitos Fiesta between Christmas and the Bowl is expected to have the New Year," Mr. DeRod said. "It biggest economic impact in is typically slow and leisure Scottsdale in the history of travel is minimal this time of the game, generating $30 mil-the year. Occupancy usually lion and filling up hotel runs in the 50 percent range. rooms in Paradise Valley and With the bowl in town this Scottsdale at a tremendous year, occupancy ranges rate, according to Dave between 80 and 90 percent." Roderique, Scottsdale's gen-Scottsdale made a eral manager of economic $400,000 payment to span- vitality. sor the Fiesta Bowl and Despite a faltering econo-Insight Bowl over the next my, Valley hotel rooms are four years, but the economic also filling up at a swift rate impact the contribution could as a direct result of the game, have on the city is expected to said Brent DeRod, exceed the initial payment, spokesman for the Scottsdale ~ officials said. Convention and Visitors Bureau. Fiesta See Fiesta -Page 8 The Miami team will stay at the Scottsdale Plaza. Insight Bowl teams will be Continued From Page 1 staying at the Doubletree Par- Recruiting a team to stay in adise Valley and Pointe South Scottsdale leads to millions Mountain. in revenues for the sponsor-"There will be a positive ing city, Mr. DeRod explained. · economic impact from this "Keeping team's in Scotts-~eal," Mr. Roderique said dale is a key component," he Guests shop and eat in noted. "Wherever teams stay, Scottsdale once they are fans tend to want to stay down here. There is a direct there, too." impact to our community." In addition, the Conven- The Fairmont Scottsdale tion and Visitors Bureau ~incess, the hotel that is put-refers Fiesta Bowl fans to tt.ng up the Ohio State Univer-Scottsdale and Paradise Val- stt: football team, is booked ley resorts and · offers sohd the week of the Fiesta brochures on Scottsdale cui- Bowl. tural exhibits and other local "This is the Superbowl of events and dining. college football," said Carole "Especially in champi- Carter, director of public rela-onship years, the impact tions for the Princess. "It is tends to be higher," Mr. very positive. People do a lot DeRod said. "There will be a of dining on property. This sizable amount of venues that game .. brings us a lot of busi-will feel the impacts of the ness. Fiesta Bowl. ~-~~---~ Saturday, January -t, 20tl3 Phoenix, Arizona THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC Page: BS 75 years later, Lions still give the gift of sight By Betty Beard The Arizona Republic MESA -Helen Keller was such an inspiration to the Mesa Host Lions Club when it organ- ized almost 75 years ago, that the work she inspired is still going on. The 28-member club not only helps provide eye exams and glasses for needy Mesa children, but has become the most success- ful in the state in collecting used eyeglasses. "All the Lions collect glasses for us. But the Mesa Host Club gets the prize every year for col- lecting the most," said Donna Rowe, executive director of the Lions Sight and Hearing Founda- tion. The club has received a trophy from the foundation for the past three years and has gathered 60,000 pairs of glasses since July 1, 2000. "We pick them up by the truck- load," said Bob Dahlheimer, one of the club's directors. Having boxes at stores such as Safeway and Albertsons helps, he said. Tuesday, January 7, 2003 Phoenix, Arizona THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC Page: B4 On Jan. 12, the club will cele- brate its 75th anniversary with a dinner and speech by Dr. Tae-Sup Lee from Seoul, South Korea. Lee is the first vice president of Lions Clubs International and has been one of his country's leaders. Dinner will be at Holiday Inn Express, 5750 E. Main St., Mesa. Cocktails will be served at 4:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 5. The cost is $30 per person. Reser- vations, due by Monday, can be made by calling ( 480) 834-q306. Mesa Host was organized in 1928, only a few years after Helen Keller challenged the new Lions Clubs in 1925 to help people with visual problems. Keller was a deaf and blind . woman who learned to communicate, write and lecture. Her story was me- morialized in the movie and play The Miracle Worker. She died in 1968. Donated glasses are run through a machine that reads their prescriptions and then sorted and labeled. Most of the roughly 200,000 glasses collected in the state every year by Lions go to Mexico and other countries, and the rest are prescribed to needy Arizonans. Paradise Valley may turn lot into wildlife refuge By Diana Balazs The Arizona Republic PARADISE VALLEY -The , town wants to turn a H~-acre dirt lot into a desert park and urban wildlife refuge that would attract birds, butter- flies and maybe a cottontail. The Paradise Valley Town Council will discuss the idea on Thursday and is asking res- idents for feedback at the 1 meeting. The council also will con- sider applying for a state Her- itage Fund grant and issuing a request for a proposal to hire a landscape architect to design a plan for the town-owned par- cel at the northwest corner of Scottsdale and Doubletree Ranch roads. Last year, a council subcom- mittee chaired by Councilman Stephen Benson was formed to look at the property and consider what to do with it. Benson said the Scottsdale- Doubletree corner is an im- portant entry point into the town and a desert park and ur- ban wildlife refuge would be a definite improvement. · ~'It's a bit of an eyesore," he ·said. Benson said the town wants to create,a spot where people could stroll and enjoy wildlife. There would be no parking or lighting. The project is estimated to cost $200,000 to $300,000. The town has $25,000 in capital im- provement funds to begin the· design work. It hopes to use grant money from the Arizona Game and Fish Department's Heritage Fund to supplement future town funding to de- velop the property in phases. The Heritage Fund is a vQt- er-approved program that funds parks and Game and Fish projects with lottery rev-, enues. Thursday's meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 6401 E. · Lincoln Drive.