Pat Ingalls
LifeLong Learning (LLL) held its spring volunteer meeting on April 2 to celebrate volunteerism and the club’s completion of another successful season. Attendees at the meeting, held in the Chianti Room, also approved the club’s slate of directors for next season and recognized LLL’s Volunteer of the Year, Kay Thomas. The club’s 2024-25 season resulted in many achievements.
The Trips Team, led by Susan Roth, organized and managed 12 trips—all sell-outs—to places like State Farm Stadium, Lake Pleasant, and Rae Dawn Arabian Stables. A season highlight was a trip to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office Citizens Academy. Throughout the season, residents reserved 658 trip tickets and registered very positive reviews.
The Speaker Series Team, led by Paul Polk, booked 13 presentations, filling 2,027 seats in its popular Weekday Speaker Series and 1,151 seats in its Premier (evening) Speaker Series. Two of the Premier presentations were especially well received. One summarized a Vietnam veteran’s research on popular music during the Vietnam War; the other described an astronaut’s experiences during multiple voyages on NASA’s space station.
The Weekday Speaker Series included two highlights, one presented by the City of Goodyear and another by the PCHOA transition group, which enlightened audiences about those organizations’ future. Both were free events and sold out.
The Classes Team, led by Marianne Boechler, offered 33 classes—15 that were new this season—and filled 645 seats. The classes covered divergent topics, ranging from owning a golf cart, to learning magic tricks, to a free class on Social Security. The team’s cooking classes, which sold out quickly, included artisan bread, lemon-meringue pie, and Korean delicacies. The team also organized LLL’s community book groups, called PC Reads, for both fiction and non-fiction, as well as discussion groups in the Great Decisions program.
Other LLL teams who worked tirelessly to support all the club’s activities include Lobby and Community Outreach, Website, Marketing, Audio-Visual, Board Support, and Volunteers.
In April, at the end of each annual season, LLL nominates and appoints a new board of directors.
“We thank this year’s board members for their work and commitment to the organization and its goals and values,” said LLL President Tim Pisarski.
Next season’s LLL directors, who were approved at the April 2 meeting, are identified in the accompanying photograph. Specific areas of responsibility for each director will be confirmed before summer.
In addition, each year LLL selects one volunteer who exemplifies the values, goals, and the spirit of volunteerism of LLL at PebbleCreek.
“This year, we are excited to award this honor to Kay Thomas,” Pisarski announced during the volunteer event. “Kay works on the Lobby and Community Outreach Team, as well as the Marketing Team, responsible for distributing printed fliers throughout the community. This year, she also worked closely with the Website Team and was instrumental in the feedback and use of a new app that we use for our Premier Speaker Series. Congratulations to Kay Thomas!”