For her service to the greater community Kathy Chandler has been named a Peoria Independent Hometown Hero in the Trailblazer category.
The Hometown Heroes Awards are a celebration of individuals who live, work or teach in the city, and Peoria businesses for their achievements and distinguished contributions to the community and beyond.
Chandler will be honored at an awards luncheon next year. The fourth annual Hometown Heroes luncheon will honor those nominated in 2024.
Learn more about Chandler here .
What did you like most about working (or having an effect) in Peoria: I love Peoria! It has been wonderful to work with city council, city staff, and with other nonprofits and businesses in Peoria. The city, in my estimation, is progressive and creative when finding solutions for the needs of its citizens. There is a level of professionalism combined with caring for those most frail in the community that comes through in those solutions. The transit team in Peoria is the best! They continue to look at new, innovative ways to provide transit. I also just love the parks and trails.
What do you think you bring to the local community that makes it better?: My heart is with the nonprofits in this local community that help so many have a better quality of life. I have made myself available to help Northwest Valley Connect as a retiree (volunteer). They provide a necessary service for the local community that provides for those who have needs that aren’t served by other options. I volunteer now with the Recorded Reading for the Blind as a grant writer, and support other nonprofi ts such as Hart Pantry, who feed homeless youth, and the El Mirage Community Center, who provide aer school tutoring and adult classes along with food programs.
Changes I’d like to see in this geographic area: I’m not a transportation planner but traffic seems such a problem all the time now. Driving Bell Road or Grand Avenue and stopping at every traffic light, sometimes for two rounds, seems so wrong. Could more public transit help? Seems so, right!
My family (what have they taught you): When I started as executive director of Northwest Valley Connect there was no other staff. I started building a team of volunteers to support the call center and then to drive seniors to appointments. My husband, who was retired, became a call center volunteer. My oldest son, who was working on his masters in cybersecurity, was our IT person fixing computers and setting up new programs. One of my daughters was the fundraising manager who wrote for sponsorships and donations for our fundraising events. Another daughter helped as my assistant to keep my calendar and more.
All of my seven adult children helped in some way as volunteers for the organization. We were always a family of volunteerism and community support and NVC was a very worthy cause. My family has really been wonderful about supporting causes that are important to each individually such as Autism Speaks, LGBTQ events, Alzheimer’s walks and more.
My interests and hobbies: I am enjoying retirement by reading and gardening. I keep up with the transit plans, what is happening with the Prop 400 expansion, and what the cities in the areas are doing to bring in more transit.
The trait(s) I admire in others: I admire people who can see a solution and will speak up and work for it. I admire people who work in nonprofi ts who give and give to make a difference. I admire caring, kind, aware people.
People who inspired me (and how): People from Northwest Valley Connect who inspired me are: Jennifer Drago was my first board chair and my mentor. She set the pace for our growth and helped me to organize in order to keep the pace. She is the smartest person I know and I appreciate all she taught me. She required excellence.
Bonnie Boyce-Wilson is was forever the teacher. Bonnie was the board chair who helped me through a time of grief aer the death of my son during the pandemic and through the changes we went through during the pandemic. Bonnie drove clients as a volunteer when needed, was the teaching supervisor for social worker interns who came to Northwest Valley Connect from ASU, and was the absolute best board chair ever! She communicated to all board members and made sure everyone was engaged and inspired to help.
Sharon Hettick was the board member who was our transit advocate with AARP, MAG and the Arizona Legislature. Sharon took her position as advocate seriously and met with area politicians regularly to advocate for the prop 400 extension, autonomous vehicle shuttles in the area, public transit expansion and any other new programs or grants that could bring transit to the area.
My guiding philosophy: Be kind and helpful to all.
My advice to today’s youth: I think today’s youth have it more together than we ever did, so my advice to them is to keep up the good work and speak out and step up for the positive changes you can make.
Name a couple future goals: I continue to advocate with others to encourage more public transit innovations in the Northwest Valley. I would like to see more autonomous, hybrid or electric shuttles to the area.
And I am volunteering with Recorded Reading for the Blind to build and undertake a fundraising plan. My mother is blind and the tapes that this organization sends out weekly are invaluable.
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