Neighbors roundup

School band strikes the right note

Band students from Esperero Canyon Middle School joined kids from three other schools at a festival last week where they were critiqued by band experts.

The Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors Association hosted the event March 6 at Catalina Foothills High School, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive.

University of Arizona doctoral student Patrick Murphy was one of the three experts. He critiqued the Esperero band.

"Their director chose music that is artistic and just right for their age level," Murphy said.

Kids can make pop-up books

Kids age 8 and up can head to the Dusenberry-River Branch Library next Thursday for a special program in which they'll learn how to make pop-up books.

The program will be from 2 to 3 p.m. at the library, 5605 E. River Road.

Supplies will be provided, so attendance is limited; call 791-4979 to sign up, or for more information.

northwest

Academy's students add to math laurels

Some of Sonoran Science Academy's most gifted athletes don't train in gyms or on soccer fields.

They train in classrooms with pencils and calculators.

Sonoran Science Academy's Mathletes — their preferred term — spent the last seven months getting ready for a middle school mathematics competition.

And all their preparation paid off.

Three of the public charter school's students will represent Arizona at the Lockheed Martin MathCounts National Competition in Denver in May.

At the state MathCounts competition, held March 1 at Vail's Cienega High School, eighth-grader Richard Spence finished in second place, followed by classmates Langston Harris, who finished third, and Joshua Sloane, who secured the final qualifying spot by finishing in fourth place.

Sixth-grader Peter Bian also competed for Sonoran Science Academy.

Richard, eighth-grader Langston and seventh-grader Joshua — along with the first-place winner, who is from the Phoenix area — will be among the 228 students competing in the national event.

"Our success is not an accident," said Kadir Bahar, the school's high school math teacher and the MathCounts coach. "We have studied for this competition for seven months. I meet with these smart kids every day and on the weekend. We studied really hard."

Picture Rocks group to meet Saturday

Citizens for Picture Rocks is holding a special meeting at 10 a.m. Saturday to collect community input on how to spend $300,000 left over from the 2004 Pima County bond election.

The meeting will be at the Sandario Baptist Church, 6971 N. Sandario Road.

Those unable to attend can also discuss the topic at the regular monthly Citizens of Picture Rocks meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Picture Rocks Community Center, 5615 N. Sanders Road.

For more information, call Greg Mattison at 682-8862.

SAhuarita

Police are proving fighting crime pays

Teaming up with other law-enforcement agencies to fight crime is beginning to pay off handsomely for Sahuarita police.

The town has received more than $234,000 this fiscal year as its share of state and federal forfeitures provided to the town through a federal anti-racketeering law.

That's more than the $134,563 from the previous five years combined, records show.

This year's RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) windfall comes mainly from the seizure of "a lot of cash" discovered in a car Sahuarita police stopped two years ago as part of a multi-agency anti-drug operation, said John Harris, Sahuarita police chief.

"That makes a major impact on the bad guys," the chief said. "You take their money away, that hurts them. Then we take the money and fight them with it."

The bust shows that the crime business is thriving along Interstate 19 and its business route, the Nogales Highway, Harris said.

"It isn't drugs coming into our community," he said. "It's drugs moving through our community, and cash coming back through.

"Whether it be people or other kinds of smuggling, this is a smuggling corridor. Has been for years."

East

Garden's vandals can make amends

It's an unusual invitation.

Residents who enjoy the community garden at Case Park would like to offer vandals who damaged the plants and trees the chance to do some good.

In recent weeks, planters and heavy benches were tipped and trees were damaged or uprooted at the park, 9851 E. Kenyon Drive.

"If they're doing it for gratification of some kind, I wish they'd come forward and find out how much more rewarding it is to do positive things," said Theresa Cisler.

Cisler is chairwoman of the Western District for the philanthropic group Civitan International.

She also oversees two groups of Junior Civitans who help with upkeep at Case Park.

These groups of about 20 students each are from Academy of Tucson Middle School, 2300 N. Tanque Verde Loop Road, and Academy of Tucson High School, 10720 E. 22nd St.

"They both take care of the park," Cisler said. "The high school takes care of the rest of the park, and the middle school does the garden."

Brianna Curran, who organizes youth and baby groups at the park, said that if she could afford it, she'd offer some money to the vandals to clean up the garden and "use their strength for good."

"I'm sad. When I've seen it, they've made me cry when I walk in there," she said of the garden.

"I think, 'Where are their parents, and why are these kids in here doing this?' "