Life Coach in Chandler, AZ

CHANDLER, Ariz. – Ready, set, blast off! The City of Chandler and Chandler Unified School District (CUSD) invite the public to the annual Chandler Innovation Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25. The free one-day, hands-on event will be in Downtown Chandler, 178 E. Commonwealth Ave., between Buffalo and Boston streets along Commonwealth Avenue.

More than 100 exhibitors from CUSD schools and local technology companies will participate to demonstrate the basics of science and the impact it has on your daily life. There will be plenty of hands-on activities as engineers and other working professionals, student makers and innovators showcase new experiments and science concepts.

Event sponsor Northrop Grumman will launch a model rocket every 30 minutes and their scientists and engineers will have at least 30 interactive activities on display. Northrop Grumman also will have a passport for kids to earn stamps as they complete each activity, including displays and experiments from CUSD. Once the passport is filled out, they may exchange it for certificate.

Intel will have their engineers available to assist the youth with assembling Scribble Bots (STEAM kits). They also will showcase their nonprofit partners, YWCA and Maricopa Community Colleges.

During the event there will be two “See It; Be It!” panel discussions led by the SciTech Institute inside the Chandler Public Library, 22 S. Delaware St., Copper Room. Both panels will feature representatives from a variety of companies including Intel, Northrop Grumman, East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT), Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona and Maricopa Community Colleges among others.

The Chandler Innovation Fair is part of the Arizona SciTech Festival, a statewide movement to promote and celebrate science in our daily lives and to earn recognition for Arizona as a science and technology hub. After competing in the Chandler Innovation Fair, many CUSD students go on to compete in the state festival. This past year, one CUSD student even moved on to the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)!

Sponsors of this year’s Chandler Innovation Fair include Northrop Grumman, Intel, NXP, WM of Arizona, Edwards and First Things First.

Free parking for the event is available at The Johnathan parking garage (south of Buffalo Street, east of Arizona Avenue), or The Alexander parking garage (north of Boston Street, east of Arizona Avenue).

For a complete list of exhibitors, visit Chandler Innovation Fair. For more information, or event-related questions, the public may contact Odette Moore with the City of Chandler Economic Development Division at 480-782-3038, or Shannon Prince with CUSD at 480-224-3710.

Media contacts:Stephanie Romero City of Chandler, Public Information Officer 480-782-2231

CHANDLER, Ariz - Chandler residents are invited to join Chandler Mayor Kevin Hartke for a fun and leisurely bike ride along the scenic Paseo Trail during the 15^th annual Chandler Family Bike Ride on Saturday, April 1, 2023.

This 7.8-mile ride is held in conjunction with Valley Bike Month (April) and will start at 8:30 a.m. at Chandler’s Park & Ride lot, 2100 S. Hamilton St., which is on the southwest corner of Germann and Hamilton streets, in Tumbleweed Park. The riders will travel east through the park to the Paseo Trail, then ride north along the Consolidated Canal to Tibshraeny Park, followed by a ride back to Tumbleweed Park.

Family Bike Ride participants will receive a free t-shirt while supplies last, and there will be light refreshments, along with information about bicycle safety, transit services and related topics. Plus, when finished, everyone from the Bike Ride will receive a free Kona Ice treat.

Check in and activities begin at 7:30 a.m. From 7:30-8:30 a.m. youth can participate in a Safety Bike Rodeo hosted by Phoenix Children’s Hospital, featuring a bicycle safety course where young cyclists are shown where and how to apply bike safety rules.

Bobs’ Free Bikes will be on-site to collect unwanted bicycles to be repaired and recycled back to children in the community. Whether you are participating in the Family Bike Ride or not, help create magic in the life of a child by dropping your donated bike at the Chandler Park and Ride on Saturday, April 1, 2023 from 7:30 - 10:30 a.m.

All participants are asked to pre-register online. All riders must wear helmets.

If you’re not able to attend the community event or would rather ride in the comfort of your own neighborhood or park, the City will also offer a virtual bike event from March 27 through April 2. Grab your family and friends and ride anytime during the weeklong event. Virtual riders who pre-register will receive a free t-shirt, while supplies last.

“This year is our 15^th annual ride and I’ve enjoyed seeing it grow and develop into an even bigger and better event.” Mayor Hartke said. “I’ve made this ride a priority every year. It provides families and businesses with a great opportunity to come together to exercise, make new friends and to celebrate bicycling in Chandler.”

The Chandler Family Bike Ride is presented by the City’s Transportation Policy Division, with support from various City departments. We thank this year’s Chandler Family Bike Ride partners: SRP, Global Bikes, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Chandler BMX, Pedal Haus, Rob Dollar Foundation, Valley Metro, Kiwanis Club of Chandler and Kona Ice.

For more information, contact Nancy Jackson at 480-782-3442 or nancy.jackson@chandleraz.gov.

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CHANDLER, AZ — When it comes to dismantling segregation in our schools, there are several key moments many of us think of: The Little Rock Nine, Ruby Bridges, and Brown vs. Board of Education.

But years before any of that, there was a group of students here in the Valley whose names may not be in the history books, but their impact is undeniable.

More than 70 years later, ABC15 is speaking to one of those barrier breakers.

"Life is worth living," explains Willie Arbuckle. "I'm 90 years old, and I enjoy life."

Any conversation with Arbuckle is like a journey through our state's past.

"Mostly cotton," Arbuckle says. "There was a lot of cotton in Arizona."

At 90 years young, Arbuckle has seen history change before his eyes, but he's also made some history of his own. It all took place on the footsteps of Chandler High School. He may not have known it at the time, but Arbuckle was about to do something no one else in his community had ever done before.

Ciletti: "At the time, did you see yourself as a trailblazer?"

Arbuckle: "No. To me at the time, we were not doing anything special we were just going to high school."

But he was also breaking barriers.

Arbuckle and his younger sister, Joella, along with Robert and Artie Mae Turner, were the very first black students to ever attend Chandler High School. The four teenagers helped to end decades of segregation. Arbuckle was a junior at the time, and despite the history he was making, he tells me he felt invisible at the time.

"I remember being ignored," Arbuckle says. "I think it was as strange for them as it was for us...The four of us in a sea of white children. You didn't know we were there...I was just trying to exist. I was just trying to get through each day peacefully."

Arbuckle says eventually, the black students and white students grew to be friendlier with one another, describing them as "good acquaintances."

But Arbuckle still remembers leading very separate lives in a still very segregated Arizona.

"Once you left the campus, the white kids would go to their neighborhood. We'd go south to the southside, our neighborhood, and act like we didn't even know each other."

Although Arbuckle now realizes how harmful segregation was, he said growing up, it was just a way of life because it was all he had ever known.

"We'd go to a drug store, get an ice cream cone, or a soft drink and they would serve you and send you out the door. You couldn't eat it or drink it in there. You'd go to a restaurant and you'd go around the back door, they'd give you a hamburger out the back door. We were fine with that - because we didn't know anything else. That's the way life was."

It was a painful time in Arizona's history and America's history. It may have seemed routine for Arbuckle at the time, but more than 70 years later, he now appreciates and honors the barriers he helped break for the ones that would continue the march toward equality - and it all started with a few brave steps.

"It was earth-shaking when you look back at it...the fact that I, along with the other three, the four of us were actually involved in an event, the absolute beginning of a new era in the school system in Chandler - that is mind-boggling. I am so proud of that, really, really proud of it. And all I had to do was just show up in school."

Later that same school year, four more black students would come to Chandler High School. Arbuckle and Robert Turner would become the first black students to graduate from Chandler High School in 1951.

The history of segregation in Arizona schools

Chandler High School integrated in 1949, even though school segregation wasn't outlawed in Arizona until 1953. The following year, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Brown vs. Board of Education, would pave the way for schools across America to end segregation.

Why did Chandler High School end segregation sooner than the rest of the state?

We've spoken to a number of historians who all have different reasons why Chandler Unified may have ended segregation sooner than the rest of the state.

Arbuckle says his mother and several other parents had petitioned the school board a number of times and were not going to take no for an answer. According to Arbuckle, they also spoke to our state's governor at the time.

There was also tremendous growth happening in the East Valley at the time, partly because of Williams Air Force Base.

Also, Carver High School, a school dedicated to students of color in Phoenix, was beginning to get more crowded; the school reportedly told other districts they were no longer to accept students from outside the Phoenix city limits.

Copyright 2023 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Google Fiber's revised expansion plan in several states took another step forward this week with an announcement that it will expand services to Westminster, Colorado, and Chandler, Arizona. The move will pit Google Fiber up against incumbents that include Comcast and Lumen in Colorado, and Cox Communications and Lumen in Arizona.

Google Fiber said it has inked deals with the city of Westminster, with plans to start construction later this year and to sign up its first customers in 2024.

Meanwhile, the Chandler City Council approved a license agreement last night that enables Google Fiber to build a fiber network. Similarly, Google Fiber expects to start construction later this year and to start offering services in early 2024.

This latest expansion follows earlier Google Fiber expansions into Lakewood, Colorado, and Mesa, Arizona.

Expansion talks continue

That work follows word from Google Fiber CEO Dinni Jain that the company was in talks with city leaders in five states – Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Idaho – about expanding fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) services to various communities.

Meanwhile, Google Fiber is preparing to introduce 5-Gig and 8-Gig speed tiers later this year, with initial tests to be run in markets such as Utah, Kansas City and West Des Moines. Current tiers offer symmetrical 1-Gig starting at $70 per month, and 2-Gig down by 1-Gig upstream for $100 per month.

Here's an updated view of Google Fiber's current and planned service deployments, and if the deployment is focused on FTTP or the Webpass fixed wireless access platform:

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Seventy-four years ago, they walked into Chandler High School for the first time, leading to the school’s desegregation back in 1949.

CHANDLER, Ariz. — Decades have passed since Willie Arbuckle walked through Chandler High School for the first time.

“Looking back, I guess it was a momentous occasion,” Arbuckle said.

Now, Arbuckle sees the history he was a part of in 1949.

“It was totally historical changing, you know, and I had nothing to do with it except I was there and I was a student,” Arbuckle said.

Arbuckle, who’s 90 years old, wasn’t just a junior student at the 35-year-old high school but one of the first eight Black students the City of Chandler is honoring for integrating the school.

“At the beginning of the year, there were four of us, Robert Turner, Artie Mae Turner, Willie Arbuckle - me - and my sister Joella (Arbuckle),” Arbuckle said.

Ernestine Jackson, Willie Ruth Payne, J. L. Payne, and Nina Loftan will also be recognized as part of the City of Chandler’s 2022 Celebration Plaza honorees for integrating Chandler High School.

Arbuckle and Robert Turner are recognized as the first Black students to graduate from Chandler High in 1951.

“Coming to an integrated environment was totally different,” Arbuckle said. “I didn’t know what to expect, really, how to react.”

The school was integrated five years before the Supreme Court of the United States decided in 1954 to integrate schools across the US in the Brown vs. Board of Education decision.

While it was a moment in history to have Chandler High School desegregated, Arbuckle remembers the first day of school differently.

“It was totally uneventful. It was as if we didn't exist. We were invisible. Not in a bad way,” Arbuckle said.

In class, Arbuckle said the students of different races didn’t talk to one another and didn’t outside of school either.

“No one made trouble. Didn’t have any racial slurs that I can remember. Which was a good thing. And we just went through each day like that,” Arbuckle said.

Arbuckle’s cousin, Ernestine Jackson Johnson, is also being recognized by the city as being among the first eight Black Chandler High students.

Johnson, who’s 87 years old now, came to the school her sophomore year after attending an integrated school in California her freshman year. Before that, Johnson said she went to Chandler’s Goodyear School in eighth grade.

“There were some rough moments that first year, but a lot of the kids said, ‘We like it,’’ Johnson said.

Johnson remembers her Chandler High School home economics teacher saying that Black female students couldn’t eat at a nice restaurant on a field trip to Phoenix.

“We said, ‘We're not going if we can't go eat with them.’ There were people in that class that said, ‘If you can't go and eat with us, I'm not going,’” Johnson said.

Both Arbuckle and Johnson recall how, while the campus itself changed, the city itself hadn’t.

“It was just a time of complete segregation, everywhere but Chandler High School,” Arbuckle said.

“We could never it in any restaurants or buy ice cream on the corner drug store,” Johnson said.

Now, they want people to know the reality of what 74 years ago was like.

“The story needs to be told; people need to know about it. Not so much because it was me, but because it happened. It’s total history,” Arbuckle said.

The eight Black students who integrated Chandler High will be honored on Saturday, January 28, at 9 a.m. at the Celebration Plaza inside Tumbleweed Park in Chandler.

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