Tempe Tuesday Talks 4/14

Good morning, Tempe! As I wake up this morning, I am reminded why we live here. It is 57 degrees out, beautiful! And it’s so very quiet out there. Eery but also beautiful. The birds have taken over the world! Note: learn the calls of the different birds. I only recognize the mourning dove.

Well, here we are a good month into this mess. Quarantine, social distancing, 6 feet apart. My son, husband and I have been here in this house almost exclusively since the afternoon of March 16th. Admittedly, I do have a slight obsession with going to the grocery store or just taking drives. I take very long daily walks with Gabriel, my 2 year old Golden and constant companion. He is the self appointed mascot of the Tempe Coalition! He takes notes, helps me make decisions and attends all of our meetings. I think we should vote on his attendance at CADCA!

Well, let’s talk Coalition for a minute, seriously. All of our committees have been meeting regularly. Education & Outreach, Events & Marketing, Sustainability, Youth and the new committee – Opioid Short Term Action Team. We are definitely busy! Today at 3:30 pm is our full coalition meeting on Zoom. If interested in joining, email me at [email protected] and I will get you the link. Lots of new and exciting stuff on the horizon to learn more about today….but here are a few spoiler alerts. Celebrating Champions For Youth will be held on 11/18 with a theme of “Making Waves” (in keeping with our City’s motto Making Waves In The Desert). We will start to do a new format for presentations: Link N Learn -Community Heath Talks (online workshops for the community). The tempecoalition.org website is updating daily with new events, videos, articles and our list of partners. Come visit! The Youth Committee is meeting weekly to stay on top of teen connection, specifically notMYkid’s weekly Teen Talks. And our new Opioid STAT is up and running to provide opioid prevention strategies for the community in partnership with PD, Fire Medical Rescue, CARE 7 and notMYkid.

We are very busy, and if I got a dollar for every time I said Zoom, I could retire!

Well, Gabriel is requesting a walk before the day gets going. Time for another cup of coffee and perhaps some music on my playlist (today Stevie Wonder because he always lifts my spirits). Join us this afternoon, visit the website, email me, tell me about something new in your life. For me: I baked red velvet cupcakes for Easter, took photos of my neighborhood and bought baby clothes (wheee!). The little stinker is the size of a fig right now! (Yes, I found baby clothes with elephants on them).

Happy Tuesday, Tempe!