34 OCTOBER 2025 By Mallory Gleich Saint Abkar Armenian Church in Scottsdale has partnered with Water for Good, a global nonprofit, to bring clean drinking water to four Ethiopian villages and one rural school serving more than 1,300 students. These communities relied on a nearby river that was also used by livestock – a cycle of contamination that Water for Good hopes to end. Through this partnership, clean water will be available to villages where basic sanitation has been severely lacking. Over the next 16-24 months, Water for Good will guide each village through a transformation process to become a Certified Healthy Village. This includes building bathrooms, handwashing stations, dish- drying racks, composting pits, and more. To earn the certification, at least 90 percent of households must qualify as “healthy homes.” Saint Abkar Armenian Church has committed $76,000 to fund the protection and piping of four freshwater springs. Water will be transported via PVC pipes to storage tanks and then distributed through village taps. A 4,000-gallon tank will also be installed in the village to ensure students and residents have access to clean water. Funding comes from the R.G. Melikian Charitable Trust, using profits from the sale of historic buildings and homes in downtown Phoenix. The Melikian family – James, Richard, Robert, and Ramona – has lived in the Phoenix area since moving from New York in 1969. All attended Hopi Elementary School and Arcadia High School, where James’ daughter, Bella, is now a junior. “Our father, Greg, bought the San Carlos Hotel in 1972, and all four of us worked there growing up,” Richard said. “That’s how we fell in love with historic buildings and started restoring them, first in Phoenix, then Tucson and Scottsdale.” The family has long donated these restored spaces for nonprofit use, serving organizations including The Nature Conservancy, Tucson Audubon Society, and the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona. In Tucson, they provided buildings for a refugee school and housing for the homeless. “The trust is focused on clean water projects and micro-banking for women in the developing world,” Richard said. “I used to go drill wells in Mexico, Kenya, Honduras, Uganda, India when I was younger. Now I support them financially.” The partnership between the church and Ethiopian communities is rooted in history. “The Ethiopian people gave refuge to our grandparents 100 years ago, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire,” Richard said. “This project is a way to give back, and a way to remind our youth that helping others is the reason we exist.” Water for Good, which has been active in Ethiopia for two decades, launched this project in 2024 and expects completion by 2025. Once the water systems are in place, villagers will be trained to maintain the infrastructure and continue progressing toward full health certification. “This isn’t charity, it’s pa r t ner sh ip,” Richard said. “And it’s powered by gratitude, memory, and a commitment to human dignity.” “Richard has such a giving heart; I appreciated working with him and really admire his desire to make an impact for 3,500 people. It’s amazing,” Water for Good’s Tyson Wise said. “This project is about so much more than providing water. It’s transforming lives and helping to create thriving communities.” waterforgood.org Church joins nonprofit to aid Ethiopia villages W elcome to Oatman, Arizona. A little town that feels straight out of the Wild West. Here, on this quirky stretch of route 66, tourists share the main street with wild burros. These friendly four-legged locals are descendants of the pack animals that miners left behind a century ago. Now, they roam freely, eating carrots out of your hand, mischievously looking for snacks in your grocery bags and pockets and posing for pictures. But burros aren’t the only legend in town. Built in 1902, the Oatman Hotel is the oldest two-story adobe building in Mohave County. Its weathered walls tell stories of prospectors, poker games and ghostly whispers. However, there is one story that put this place on the map. Ask anyone in town and they will tell you the hotel’s most famous guests were Hollywood royalty: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. In 1939, just after their wedding in Kingman, the newlyweds snuck off to Oatman to spend their first night as husband and wife. Allegedly, Gable was taking a break from filming Gone with the Wind and locals say the couple wanted a hideaway far from Hollywood’s glare. Oatman was remote, rustic and romantic in its own way. According to lore, they tucked away in room 15 above the saloon which is now referred to as the honeymoon suite. We did a little digging, and it turns out there really is no proof that they checked in that night. In fact, some say they drove straight back to Los Angeles and never made a stop in Oatman. So it seems what we have is a legend, handed down from one generation to the next, until it became part of the fabric of the town. However, legends often grow from seeds of truth. Clark Gable did have a real connection to this desert outpost. Locals remember him as a regular visitor, escaping Hollywood to play poker with miners in the hotel saloon. According to them, he blended right in, shuffling cards, sharing laughs and enjoying the rough and tumble spirit of the town. So perhaps the honeymoon tale took root because Gable was already a part of Oatman and whether he ever spent his wedding night here, his presence helped turn myth into legend. Today, the Oatman Hotel no longer offers rooms for rent, but tourists can still step inside. The bar and dining room are covered in dollar bills taped to the walls, a patchwork of visitors leaving their mark. Upstairs, the “Gable-Lombard” suite is on display for people to embrace the love, legend and Hollywood magic of yesteryear. That’s the essence of Oatman. A town where burros wander the streets as if they own them, where dollar bills blanket the walls of a century- old hotel, and where one Hollywood couple who may or may not have spent their honeymoon there turned a simple room into a story that still draws visitors from around the world. Oatman isn’t just a dot on Route 66. It’s a place where fact and folklore blur together; where legends like the burros never leave. The Hollywood legend that put Oatman on the map Robin is the host and executive producer of the Arizona Highways Television , Saturdays and Sundays on CBS. BY ROBIN SEWELL These four-legged locals are descendants of the pack animals that miners left behind a century ago. This project is about so much more than providing water. It’s transforming lives and helping to create thriving communities.

35 OCTOBER 2025 One of our city’s most exciting outdoor events returns this fall: The Phoenix Summit Challenge. Known across the country, this event invites participants of all skill levels to push their limits while exploring the trails of the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. Whether you’re aiming to complete the PHX7, PHX5, PHX4, or the inclusive PHX All Abilities challenge, this event is about more than getting to the finish line – it’s about discovering your strength and inspiring others to reach new heights. To help you prepare, community information sessions will be held in October. These sessions provide a chance to meet with park rangers and volunteers, learn about trail conditions, review hiking safety tips, and pick up maps and trail passports. The first session will take place on October 13 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at Just Roughin’ It Adventure Company, located at 10880 N. 32nd St. A second session is scheduled for October 20, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the Arizona Hiking Shack, 3244 E. Thomas Road. Before the big day, don’t miss the mandatory Bag Pick-Up & Expo. Participants must attend one of the two events to receive their official event t-shirt, parking wristbands, and key materials. The first pick-up will be on November 8 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Arizona Hiking Shack, and the second on November 12 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Just Roughin’ It. Attendees will also have the chance to register for the tracking system, visit sponsor booths, purchase guest meals for the UROCK Festival, and stock up on beer tokens. For full details, visit the City of Phoenix website and search “Phoenix Summit Challenge.” Library Card Sign-Up Month Continues Now through November 1, the Phoenix Public Library is celebrating Library Card Sign-up Month with its Amazing Library Card campaign. Residents are encouraged to sign up for a free library card and unlock access to thousands of resources including books, eBooks, computers, Wi- Fi, and Culture Passes for museums and attractions. Getting a library card is quick and easy: just bring a valid photo ID and proof of address to any Phoenix Public Library location. Children under 13 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. To learn more, visit phoenixpubliclibrary.org. Happy October! Councilman Kevin Robinson Prepare for the PHX Summit Challenge A PEEK BEHIND-THE-SCENES Approaching press time, the former owners of the Arcadia newspaper – Jon and Linda, a husband and wife duo who truly did it all – had two separate cover photo ideas fall through. It was Friday afternoon in mid-September, 1995, and their press deadline of midnight was looming. Today, an issue like this would be solved fairly quickly: capture the scene with a digital photo (likely using a phone), import the photo into the layout on a laptop, then exporting a PDF for Page 1, which would be attached in an e-mail to the printer. Total time: 1.5 hours. In 1995, this was more involved and included the following: shooting at least one roll of film and getting it developed at a one-hour place using a special half- tone creation for the press requirements. After that, the layout would take some time to complete. Producing the paper took at least two days of painstaking, hand-crafted trimming and pasting little print-outs of everything on a foam core board that had little light blue lines to aid the designer with lining everything up. Cotton gloves, X-acto blades, 3M spray glue and a whole lot of patience were required. Even after all that, the cover board page would need to be delivered to the printer, located 90 minutes away in Prescott. Jon and Linda left early and rushed over to their kids’ school from the office – at 48th Street and Thomas back then. They encouraged the kids to grab a couple friends for an immediate play date/Halloween themed photoshoot. The result is what you see above. Future Arcadia News editions would include a blended-into-the-background cameo of Jon, Linda and the family, but they never had a problem with last-minute cover photos in the five years after this shot was taken. ARCADIANEWSARCHIVES.COM 30 YEARS AGO Councilman District 6 602-262-7491 District6@phoenix.gov KEVIN ROBINSON