There will be a special party for a special lady today, Wednesday, Feb. 20, at Fountain View Village.
The fun will begin at 4 p.m. when family, friends and neighbors gather to celebrate the 100th birthday of Jane Haynes.
To make the birthday celebration even more memorable, she is scheduled to go skydiving on Saturday, Feb. 23, weather permitting.
She will be strapped in tandem-style for her descent with one of the instructors at the skydiving school in Eloy.
“It’s something I always wanted to do. Why not use this special birthday to finally do it?” she told me in a conversation last week.
Jane used to write a column that appeared monthly in The Times on desert plants. It was called “Exploring Among Saguaros.”
Jane approached me about writing the column in October 1976 saying that so many people were moving to Fountain Hills from the Midwest that they could learn a lot from such a column on desert plants and flowers. It ran in the newspaper until 2003.
She was elected president of the Green Branch Garden Club in 1974. The next year, she and daughter Pat identified a majority of the plants along a trail in a canyon near Fountain Hills Boulevard just north of Shea Boulevard. They founded the Fountain Hills Botanical Garden.
Her efforts earned her a spot in the Lower Verde Valley Hall of Fame in 2005.
I want to wish a safe and happy 100th birthday to you, Jane. You are one special lady.
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Friends got together on Saturday, February 9th, to help out another special lady, Rose Barringer.
She operated the Silver Stein bar and restaurant for years in the community.
Rose has been down on her luck since the middle of last year. In late April, she learned that she had breast cancer. Then in early May, a hurricane hit Rocky Point where she owns a second home.
The storm was the worst to hit the Rocky Point area in 35 years. The house in Cholla Bay is located at the end of a road. The heavy rain flowed down the road and right into her home, which was devastated.
She lost her refrigerator, stove and everything else in her kitchen. In fact, she lost everything else on the ground floor including furniture and many keepsakes.
Fountain Hills contractor Jim LaVoie, a close friend of Rose, traveled to Rocky Point to check out the damage.
“It was worse than I ever could have imagined,” he said.
Some 10 dump truck loads of mud and debris were removed from the house.
Rose’s brother and sister-in-law, Bruce and Kay Franklin, are now trying to repair the damaged house to make it livable once again.
Meanwhile, her friends began planning a fundraiser to help Rose with the financial assistance she needed to cover losses both from her medical problems and the house devastation in Mexico.
Rose has completed her chemo sessions and her final radiation treatment is this week.
Rose’s good friend, Carole Long, started the meetings three months ago to plan the fundraiser. She started calling women to meet periodically and give them their assignments.
“There are so many people to thank, I’m afraid I might leave someone out,” Rose said.
“I do want to say a special thank you to Barb Baird, who contacted a number of Rocky Point restaurants for donations, to the Am-Vets for use of their building and for all of their help, to Phyliss Kern for donating all the fencing around the yard sale area in the parking lot, to Georgie’s Diner for donating the food, to all of the other businesses who donated items for the yard sale and a big thank you to my family who has helped me get through this time of need.
“All of you have been wonderful helping me like you have, I love you all,” she said.
