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March Meeting: Saturday March 29, 2025

9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Where: Scottsdale Community College, Indigenous Community Center

This month we are holding our general meeting in conjunction with AAUW-AZ's Spring Forum 2025 (see below). Speakers will include Meghan Kissell from National AAUW and our own Jodi Liggett, plus a speaker from Civic Engagement Beyond Voting and a speaker from Save Our Schools, who will be speaking on opportunities for involvement with local policymaking. This day will provide everything you will need to engage in what is happening in our community and state.

Registration for this informative day right here in our neighborhood at SCC is just $40.00, which includes lunch. Go to aauwarizona.org to register before March 19.

Message from the Board....

Happy Spring, AAUW Members. Wanna win $50? As we look forward to a new fiscal year I want to remind all members to renew promptly. Most of us have renewals coming up in June and this would be a very good year to finally get organized to renew online. We have a lot of members and we are still maintaining two data bases and it is cumbersome and rarely reconciles. Your dues are $105 (that is combined branch, state and national) and if you renew online prior to June 1 you will be entered into a drawing for a $50 Visa card. This is for online renewals prior to June 1. So get yourself online on or before May 31. Online renewals only are entered into the drawing.

One might ask…how, oh how do I renew online?

AAUW has a fairly user-friendly and familiar-type payment system residing at:

www.aauw.org. You will likely need your member number and need to establish an account if you don’t already have one. If you find you need your member number you can obtain that by emailing or calling me, Viva Ashcroft at vivajeanashcroft@gmail.com or 602-999-3598, or our Co-Finance Director, Lennie Andrews who uses email lennie44andrews@gmail.com or 602-369-9206.

Now, I want to also thank the dozens of you who have participated in our annual Holiday and Author's Luncheons. The Holiday Luncheon nets more than $2500 and the Author’s Luncheon more than $700. Your support of these events is very much appreciated and by the way…I have found them to be really a ton of fun. Plus, in addition to supporting our scholarship funds, the Author’s Luncheon provides valuable experience for the students in the culinary program at Scottsdale Community College and we diners get to enjoy their lovely room and delicious cusine.

And for an update on how we invest local dollars….the Scottsdale Branch has added $5,000.00 recently to our AAUW Scottsdale Endowment at the Maricopa Community Colleges Foundation for our Scottsdale Community College scholarships. The fund now totals over $32,00000. The fund started by the Phoenix Branch supports Phoenix Community College and there

is over $50,000 in that fund. It is getting easier and easier to award multiple scholarships each year.

Thank you one and all!

And remember…renew on or before May 31 ONLINE and you will be automatically entered in a drawing for a $50 Visa card.



--Viva Ashcroft, Co-Vice President, Finance

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP NEWS

Lunch Bunch...

Have I got a treat for you! We are going to Babbo’s at 8840 E. Talking Stick Way on March 6 at 12:00 PM. I thought I might unravel their menu a bit as it has so many choices that your culinary mind can easily get overwhelmed! For instance, you could make a meal of an appetizer or two such as the stuffed portobello mushroom (Portobello Mushroom, Sausage Ragu, Mozzarella, Bruschetta Tomatoes, Parmesan, Fresh Basil),pistachio mozzarella (Sliced Tomatoes, Fresh Mozzarella, Pistachios, Fresh Basil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Balsamic Glaze.) or the parmesan crusted eggplant (Parmesan Crusted Eggplant with Melted Mozzarella in a Pink Vodka Sauce. Topped with Shaved Parmesan and Parsley.)

However, if you believe that “when in an Italian restaurant, pasta is the star”, then partake of the sumptuous entrees such as lemon garlic spaghettini (Lemon, Basil, Red Pepper Flakes, Garlic Butter Sauce, topped with shaved Parmesan and Basil), Pete’s Pink Fettucine (Lemon, Basil, Red Pepper Flakes, Garlic Butter Sauce, topped with shaved Parmesan and Basil) for the spice lovers, or Valducci (Lemon, Basil, Red Pepper Flakes, Garlic Butter Sauce, topped with shaved Parmesan and Basil).

Now here is where it gets tricky! If you are watching your carbs, you can choose an “Unpasta Bowl”. You can choose your protein (shrimp, roasted chicken, portobello mushroom or salmon) and they will put it on a bed of your choice ( riced veggies: cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, OR brown rice and red quinoa, OR a combination of red quinoa, brown rice and riced veggies!) 

So now you can imbibe at an Italian restaurant and still tell your doctor you are “eating healthy!"

Please let me know by March 2 if you will be joining us on this Italian extravaganza at 12:00 PM on March 6.



--Cynthia Peplinski, at cynthiadysart@cox.net

Books Etc.

If you attended AAUW’s last meeting, you will be well versed in the power of memoirs. Our upcoming book for discussion is just such a memoir chronicling  the story of the 1960’s as seen by Dick and Doris Kearns Goodwin. Anne Palazzo will be our discussion leader and also our hostess at 7906 E Cochise Road, Scottsdale, on March 19 at 1:00 PM.  

A short review follows:An Unfinished Love Story, is just such a memoir chronicling  the story of the 1960’s as seen by Dick and Doris Kearns Goodwin. Dick Goodwin was one of the “brilliant young men of John F. Kennedy’s 'New Frontier.'" He was one of Kennedy’s primary speechwriters. Kennedy was his idol. In his thirties, Dick wrote about and helped design LBJ’s Great Society. He was always idealistic and wanted the best for the country. When he wanted to move on with his life, he had to fight to leave LBJ’s White House. Dick’s speeches helped Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy. While he idolized JFK, Dick was closer to RFK. He loved him and saw him as the future of the country. In Dick’s memories are stories of these men, along with their interactions with Martin Luther King, Jr. and others, the important movers of the 1960s.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s memories of her time with LBJ starts just before she was selected as a White House Fellow, despite the article in The New Republic, “How to Remove LBJ in 1968”. She was in her twenties, idealistic as well, and went to work at the Department of Labor, advocating for Johnson’s Great Society programs, and helping them to move ahead. Eventually, she was transferred to the White House where she often worked directly with the President. Although she turned him down when he was retiring and wanted her to help write his memoirs, she eventually found a way to work part-time for him, while teaching at Harvard.

Please let Anne know at azapalazzo@yahoo.com if you will be attending so she can put another lemon slice in the tea!

See you at Anne's

--Cynthia Peplinski cynthiadysart@cox.net

A Call to Action....

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." --Martin Luther King Jr.

"The Scottsdale Unified School District decided to remove 16 books from high school library shelves after a conservative coalition sent a letter saying 'pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable content' was being offered to students. In the letter sent to the Scottsdale Unified Governing Board in July, the group called for the removal of 18 books. The letter was sent on behalf of several organizations, including Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity, Arizona Women of Action and Restore Parental Rights in Education. It said the books cited "fail to possess any serious educational value for minors, or serious artistic, literary, political or scientific value,'" mirroring language in a state law passed in 2022 that prohibits public schools from referring students to or using any 'sexually explicit material." from azcentral, Feb. 14, 2025. And thanks to Libby Hart-Wells for referring this information to us.

Is this how we want our students' worlds to be slowly narrowed to encompass only content that is acceptable to the far right? This is just one example of how we must stand up and make our values and opinions known. As this new administration, locally, state and nationally, moves forward, Executive Order by Executive Order, to dismantle our rights, you must vocalize and appear when others of our beliefs gather here locally.

A first step can be to watch/listen to the recording of the national AAUW Member Winter Gathering held recently, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PDN1kZsNXQ.

--Alice Buck, President

This year’s Title 1 school is Navajo Elementary School. Our goal for this school is over 430 books to guarantee that each student receives a book of their own book to take home. This year the need is great with an enrollment of 429 children!

Please continue to browse your local library, your community drives and yard sales, your friends’ houses, and sales online for books in very good or new condition. Our goal of at least 450 books will be approaching soon and we currently have approximately 340 books that have been donated. I am so excited that we are so much nearer to our goal!

Our delivery date is in early May. This means that we need to meet in April to clean, separate out books that do not meet our guidelines related to material and condition, and sort according to grade and reading level. So please watch for postings next month regarding this preparation process for delivery.

Thank you to those who continue to collect and donate books for this great AAUW cause. Remember the smiles we leave on sweet faces of children!

Best,



--Linda Nance

Adopt-A-Book Chair