A large gathering of interested residents gathered at the Wednesday Computer Club meeting to hear a presentation by Gary Lambert, Palm Creek's Operations Manager. Gary outlined the history of internet in Palm Creek from it's beginning stages back in 2003 until present day. He described how optic fiber was installed and how the park was split into 10 different sections so problems could be tracked and narrowed down to the source.
Don Brook, Area Service Manager for Dish, then described the issues that Dish has encountered with keeping the internet connection strong and viable in Palm Creek. The demand for internet accessibility has increased more than 30% since last season due to so many residents using streaming services, etc. The current band width available to us is insufficient to meet our demands which causes the intermittent delays and outages we have been experiencing this season. Dish is working diligently to increase the band width to the park. Hopefully, this will be accomplished in the next few weeks. Mr. Brook assured us that Dish is making this a high priority for the company.
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Our entertainment venue continues to excel. Tonight's Aretha Franklin Tribute was fantastic. So very professionally done! The musicians and performers were outstanding!
This woman really has the vocal chords of Aretha. She continually hit those high notes to perfection.
This trio of brass players are top notch!! The trumpet player (Daniel) was also here for the Tom Jones concert.
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One of the RV residents that is parked across the street from our site (Cindy Bauw) came over today to tell us the wonderful story of how nice our Palm Creek residents are.
Monday evening she took her dog over to the dog park at the end of Starry Night Lane. The next morning she became panicked when she discovered that her cell phone wallet containing her phone, credit cards, and important documents was missing. She searched frantically through the RV, down the street, at the dog park etc. to no avail. Later she pinged her phone and it appeared to be up at the front office. Sure enough.....someone was kind enough to turn in the wallet. All credit cards and documents were still in tact. Cindy is extremely grateful and wants to reach out to whoever was the hero as no name was left behind. She says "THANK YOU" .
(Makes a person proud of our residents!)
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SHOE COLLECTION
The Missions team at the First Presbyterian Church in Casa Grande is undertaking a shoe collection campaign. We will be partnering with the local Cottenwood School to collect 2500 pairs of gently used and new shoes between February 1st and March 31st...two months (now only 6 weeks away). The funds raised will be used to support local mission projects and activities at the school.
You might be thinking... WHY SHOES?
All of the donated shoes will be picked up by Funds2Orgs and re-distributed to people in developing countries like Haiti, where economic opportunities and jobs are limited, who repair and sell the shoes to make a living...they are called micro-entrepeneurs.
Also, did you know that in 2015, the EPA reported that textiles, including shoes and clothing represented over 16 tons and 65.7% of the contents in landfills. In the US alone, each individual produces 4 and 1/2 pounds of daily waste, which includes shoes that are thrown away.
You can donate any type or size of shoe as long as it is gently worn or new. Ask yourself, would I give this pair of shoes to a friend? If not, don't donate it.
So this shoe drive is a win-win for many reasons. We raise money for missions, we develop a relationship with our neighborhood school, we help people in developing countries create small businesses, and we help the environment.
So look for the big red box in the Palm Creek Activities Office and hopefully other neighborhoods will put a box in their Activities Offices. When you put shoes into the box - make sure shoes are bound either by tying the laces together or rubber band those shoes without laces.
