Non-profit wants to honor Arizona centennial with service

By Dianna M. Náñez – Jan. 25, 2011
The Arizona Republic

In honor of Arizona’s centennial in 2012, a Tempe non-profit has challenged residents, businesses and faith groups to volunteer 100 hours of community service this year.

For Our City, a program managed by Care Inc., launched “100 Hours in 2011” last week.

Care Inc. founder and Tempe resident Jon McHatton said the goal is to get hundreds of people to dedicate 100 hours of their time to caring for the homeless and hungry, to mentoring or to other human-service projects.

“With the centennial coming up in 2012 we thought it would be a great gift to show the nation . . . the good things that are going on in Arizona,” McHatton said.

Individuals, businesses and faith groups can learn about Tempe community service projects or charity drives and track their volunteer hours through the For Our City website, www.forourcity.org/Tempe.html.

Care Inc. launched the first For Our City program in Tempe in 2005 to combat negative stereotypes about Arizona, McHatton said. “Traveling throughout other parts of the nation and hearing various perspectives of what Arizona is, just didn’t line up with my experiences of the great people across the state from Nogales to Flagstaff,” he said.

The program is in seven cities and is led by each municipality’s mayor.