{"id":11028,"date":"2026-03-01T17:27:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T17:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/?p=11028"},"modified":"2026-04-01T21:18:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T21:18:34","slug":"march-2026-newsletter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/?p=11028","title":{"rendered":"March 2026 Newsletter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Another in our series\u2026<\/h3>\n

The People of the Park:<\/h1>\n

A Visit with JoAnn Sipola<\/h1>\n

By Dale Dauten<\/h1>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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The evening news had been full of winter storm photos all during the week I was to meet with JoAnn Sipola. Winter had even tried to reach down to Silveridge \u2013 while the highs would reach into the 60\u2019s, one night\u2019s low had dipped down into the 30\u2019s. That happened to be the day I sat down with JoAnn, and when I heard that one of her volunteer activities was leading a weekly water aerobics class, it caused me, a longtime desert resident, to wonder aloud if it had been too cold for the pool.\u00a0She laughed, then simply added this: \u201cI\u2019m from Minnesota.\u201d Even so, she went on to confess that she was getting less inured to the cold: \u201cI used to say that I wouldn\u2019t go to the pool if it was 36 degrees or colder outside — but now it\u2019s 38 degrees.\u201d<\/p>\n

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(Photo: JoAnn at the Silveridge library)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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I doubt she has much time to notice the weather as she volunteers with and helps lead, not one activity, not two\u2026 well, let\u2019s jump to the end\u2026\u00a0five\u00a0groups of which she\u2019s an active part. There\u2019s the aforementioned water aerobics, which she leads every Friday morning; plus, she\u2019s one of the park\u2019s librarians; she\u2019s on the team that puts on the Minnesota party, leads a new hiking group, and is involved in the making of mats for the homeless.<\/p>\n

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It’s the last of these, the mats, about which she seemed most passionate. Turns out that a casual conversation led to the activity\u2019s start at the park: \u201cA friend from Wisconsin taught me about crocheting grocery bags into mats \u2013 their church had been doing it. That led me to visit the Lost Dutchman Church in Apache Junction, and they gave us our first loom.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The thin, strong plastic used in grocery bags creates clogging problems for recycling equipment, which is why many municipal recycling programs don\u2019t want them. But, as JoAnn explained, if you take about 500 bags, cut them into strips, and weave them on a 6\u2019X3\u2019 wooden loom, you end up with a sturdy, waterproof mat that\u2019s helpful to someone who\u2019s homeless. The mats from Silveridge \u2013 the park\u2019s volunteers turned out about 30 last year \u2013 are donated to the Genesis Project in Apache Junction, which operates a soup kitchen and also supplies clothing and toiletries. JoAnn recalls a recent visit to their facility: \u201cI had six mats that I was taking in, and as I was unloading them, a homeless lady came up to me and said, \u2018I could really use one of those.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

(JoAnn and park volunteers at work on a mat)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Another of JoAnn\u2019s favorite activities is hiking, and this season she\u2019s experimenting with a new group: \u201cThey asked me to start a group for people who are new to hiking or don\u2019t want a hike that\u2019s too demanding. So every Thursday morning we go out for an easy hike, about three to four miles, with not too much change in elevation.\u201d If you\u2019re interested in giving it a try, there\u2019s a signup sheet on the bulletin board outside the Activities office, including carpooling options.<\/p>\n

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A BRIEF BIO<\/h4>\n

We like to pass along a bit about the folks in the park, and here\u2019s some of what we learned\u2026<\/p>\n

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JoAnn says she \u201cwas born, raised, and stayed in Virginia, Minnesota.\u201d Her father worked for the railroad, her mother was a teacher, and JoAnn graduated from Virginia High, she was off to Bemidji State for a degree in Business, with a focus on computers.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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That led to her early career as a computer programmer. However, she took time off when her son was born, and then went to work alongside her optometrist husband, Don. They ended up with three clinics, with JoAnn as Clinic Manager. Although they retired a decade ago, the clinics live on, now run by the Sipolas\u2019 son and daughter-in-law, both optometrists, and despite being retired, JoAnn says with a smile, \u201cThey let me come into work once in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

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(JoAnn and Don Sipola)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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As for coming to the park, it happened because Don\u2019s parents lived in Leisure World. This was a few decades back, a time when, as JoAnn put it, \u201cThere was just Leisure World and orange groves.\u201d Visiting Don\u2019s folks once or twice a year meant that the couple was familiar with the area, and once they retired and acquired a motor home, they decided to come to the Valley for a month. They looked for a place to stay and happened upon an opening at Silveridge: \u201cSomeone\u2019s parents had gotten sick, so they had to leave early, and we got their spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

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JoAnn described her first reaction to Silveridge, \u201cIt really is \u2018the friendliest park in the West.\u2019 We came on that first visit, and the day we arrived, we were at our first happy hour. How could we not go back?\u201d That next year, they reserved a spot to return the following year, but before heading home, they decided to look at a few park models: \u201cWe bought a unit that day.\u201d<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another in our series\u2026 The People of the Park: A Visit with JoAnn Sipola By Dale Dauten The evening news […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11028"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11028"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11041,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11028\/revisions\/11041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}