The Park is a free, monthly magazine produced by Estrella Publishing for the residents of Litchfield Park.
The Park ™ A magazine for Litchfield Park residents From Your Neighbors, For Your Neighbors
November 2026
November 2026 1
Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
Gentle Hearts Animal Hospi i al
Dr. Pamela Boyd, DVM Dr. Sydney Russo, DVM Dr. Jamie Kennedy, DVM
623.298.4200 GentleHearts@phxcoxmail.com 14445 W. McDowell Rd. Suite A-106 Goodyear, AZ 85395 Dogs, Cats, Exotics, Reptiles, & Birds!
Published by Estrella Publishing LLC, PO Box 6962, Goodyear AZ 85338. Catherine Uretsky, Publisher and Editor; Talia Ebert, Assistant Editor;
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Al Uretsky, Publisher and Sales Executive; 623.398.5541; info@EstrellaPublishing.com All contents © 2010-present Estrella Publishing LLC. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in any form, in whole or part, without written permission from Estrella Publishing LLC is prohibited. Estrella Publishing accepts freelance contributions, there is no guarantee that materials will be used or returned. Estrella Publishing is not responsible for the content of contributing writers and advertisers and assumes no responsibility for errors appearing within. Opinions expressed are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the Publisher or Advertisers. Estrella Publishing reserves the right to restrict all advertisement to their proper classification and to edit or reject any copy at its sole discretion. Neither this publication nor Estrella Publishing is an agent of or in any way affiliated with the associated Developer nor Homeowners Association, or any of their respective affiliates. This publication has not been approved by, sponsored by, or endorsed by the associated Developer nor Homeowners Association in any way.
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November 2026
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From Me To You... Somewhere in your kitchen, on the back of an
So here is your permission slip. Let some of it go. Nobody at the table will notice the missing garnish. Nobody has ever said, they had a lovely evening, but the napkins were not folded into swans. Choose the three things that matter, do them well, and let the rest fall off the page. And then, when the list is quiet, make room for a different one, the kind that cannot be written down. Some people we love are no longer at the table. Some live too far away to reach, and some are estranged, a distance that can ache more than miles. This season, set a place for them in your heart. Tell one story about them, even if it comes with tears. Love does not need a seat to stay present. Thanksgiving is not a deadline. It is an invitation to notice what we have, and who has shaped us. Put the pen down. The pie will be fine, and so will you. Catherine Uretsky Editor, The Park Magazine info@estrellapublishing.com
envelope or in the notes app on your phone, there is a list. It may say turkey, cranberries, pie crust, and the name of the cousin who cannot eat gluten. Lists are everywhere, the holidays are made of lists, and so, if we are honest, is most of life. I have to be honest, I am a fan of a good list. Lists keep us accountable. They remind us who we promised what, and they spare us the midnight horror of remembering the rolls are still in the freezer. There is real satisfaction in crossing something off your list, a small drumroll of triumph that no other activity quite matches. I will admit that I have been known to add a task I already finished just so I can get the buzz of having achieved something - knowing that there is one thing less to do. But a list has a dark side. It never says well done. It only says what is next? Somewhere around the third week of November, the list stops being a helper and becomes a tiny, paper-thin boss who works non-stop and does not accept resignations. If we are not careful we can start living for the check marks, and miss the people standing right beside us.
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School Connect
What happens when a room full of school principals, businesses, faith leaders, public service officials and parents come together? Powerful student-centered connections. On Oct. 12, Litchfield Elementary School District 79 presented a School Cafe. The meeting is the third of its kind for the district, said Superintendent Dr. Carter Davidson. “Litchfield Elementary School District is high performing. We are an A-rated district and there are so many things that make us special and our communities awesome,” he said. “Today, we are doing the work for the future of our communities. Students will remember what happens from the work you’ve done today. They won’t care how their school is rated. They will care about how they feel and what you’ve done for their future.” School Cafe is a brainstorming moment for principals to think through their dreams and goals for their school, said Tracey Beal, founder and CEO of School Connect, the nonprofit organization that works with school districts to build partnerships. “No one organization can meet all the needs of our students,” she said. “We are raising our future together.”
Wigwam Creek Middle School Principal Sarah Rosenthal shared how a School Cafe meeting prompted donations and volunteers to help rehab an existing tortoise habitat on her campus. More than 100 people and 60 students came together on Love Our Schools Day to install vegetation, cut back overgrown brush and build a small pond. Members of the school’s turtle club now care for the reptiles, but all students interact in some way with the land-based creatures. For example, students read to the turtles to practice literacy skills. For Belen Soto Elementary School Principal Courtney Frazier, a previous School Cafe meeting was an opportunity to build Careers on Wheels, a career- exploration day for students in grades pre-k through fourth. Not only did students have an opportunity to sit in police cars and explore fire trucks, but they became window washers and farmers, too. “We put a call out to the public to find volunteers,” Frazier said. “We were trying to think of something with a zero cost to us, that would have a big impact on students. For a lot of our kids, they are exposed to the careers of their parents, or grandparents or family friends,” Frazier said. Careers on Wheels gave them new opportunities to consider. Ideas that came out of the Oct. 12 meeting included campaigns to increase attendance, provide mental health resources for families and teachers and a reading/career exploration event on Dr. Seuss Day. “School Connect has played an important role in bringing people together, building meaningful relationships, and creating opportunities for schools, teachers and – most importantly – our students. We are grateful for the impact this work continues to have and help build our Litchfield Learners, creating a space where all can believe, belong and become,” said LESD79 Deputy Superintendent of Academic Success, Dr. Jennifer Benjamin. Submitted by Sara Clawson, Communication Generalist, Litchfield Elementary School District 79
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November 2026
Permission To Rest
Rest Is Not Laziness
moment with a screen, a task or a low-grade spiral about productivity, we are not being efficient. We are interrupting the very processes that leave us sharper, more creative and steadier when we return to work. It is like never letting a muscle recover between workouts and wondering why performance keeps slipping. November and December are when most of us double down on busyness. The calendar fills, obligations pile up, and rest gets pushed to some hopeful future: after the holidays, after the new year, after things slow down. But things rarely slow down on their own. Rest has to be chosen and defended, the same way any other priority is. It need not be elaborate. You do not need a retreat, a spa day or a week off. Twenty minutes of real quiet will do. So will a walk without earbuds, a meal without a screen, or a conversation that goes nowhere useful but feels human. Rest of this kind is a skill, and like any skill it improves with practice. Your brain already knows what it needs. The harder part is letting it have it.
As the year winds down and the to-do lists grow longer, here is the case for doing less, and meaning it. We have a problem with rest. Not with the word, since everyone says they want more of it, but with the doing of it. Rest without guilt, without a phone in hand, without half our attention already on what comes next has become almost countercultural. And it costs us more than most people realize. Neuroscience offers a useful explanation. During genuine downtime, meaning real mental disengagement and not scrolling or background television, the brain switches on what researchers call the default mode network. This system is linked to consolidating memory, processing emotions, making sense of experience and sparking creative insight. Researchers are still mapping exactly how it works, but the pattern is consistent. Think of the shower epiphany, the problem that solves itself on a walk, the sudden clarity about a decision you have agonized over. None of that is random. It is a brain given room to do its background work. When we take that room away, filling every idle
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Real Not Perfect
Not everyone is heading home to a Norman Rockwell painting this November. For many people, the hardest part of the holidays is pretending otherwise. Commercials, social media and the cheerful checkout- line playlist sell us the same picture: warm tables, easy laughter, people glad to see each other. For many, that image lands somewhere between aspirational and painful. Families are complicated. Some are marked by estrangement, old grievances or dynamics that turn a five-day visit into an endurance test. Some carry recent loss, an empty chair nobody knows how to mention. Some are blended, with real tension over traditions and whose house hosts Thanksgiving. And for people who are alone this season, the pressure to be surrounded by warmth can feel especially cruel. In clinical practice, one pattern shows up again and again: the gap between expectation and reality. The more rigid our picture of how the holidays should look, the more room there is for disappointment, conflict and grief. Treat the holidays as what they are, not what they are supposed to be. A quiet, imperfect, honest holiday is not a failure.
A few practical ground rules help. Decide before you arrive how long you will stay, and stick to it, because open-ended visits breed open-ended tension. Choose in advance which topics you will engage with and which you will let go. Give yourself permission to step outside, take a walk and breathe, because physical space is a legitimate tool for emotional regulation. If you are spending the day alone, by choice or circumstance, name that honestly rather than fighting it, and build a day with something in it worth looking forward to. If the season feels heavier than you can carry, talk with your doctor or a mental health professional. In the US, you can call or text 988 anytime. The holidays do not have to be perfect to be meaningful. They just have to be real. That is a lower bar, and a more achievable one, than the one being advertised.
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11/30/2026
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Cotton Country The Agricultural Roots of the West Valley
grew beautifully. The company bought roughly 16,000 acres west of Phoenix, and workers, many recruited from Mexico, cleared the land, dug canals and planted the fields. The settlement that rose around the farm was first called Egypt, then Goodyear, while Litchfield Park took the executive’s own name. Cotton was one of Arizona’s famous Five C’s, alongside copper, cattle, citrus and climate. Citrus left its own mark on the Valley. Orange groves once stretched across much of the region, including Glendale and Surprise. By the early 1990s the state’s citrus industry was worth more than $100 million a year, but home building steadily pushed most of the large orchards out of Maricopa County. Goodyear Farms eventually became an experimental operation whose work influenced farming methods well beyond Arizona. By the 1960s, though, the company was turning its attention to real estate, and when Goodyear Farms closed in 1986, its fields made way for the homes and businesses that fill the area today. Farming has not vanished, only moved. A 2024 University of Arizona study put agriculture’s contribution to the state economy at $30.9 billion, with much of the activity now sitting farther from the suburbs, in places like Yuma and Pinal County. So the next time you pass a stretch of flat, open ground on the west side and wonder what it used to be, there is a good chance the answer is a field that fed somebody and helped build everything you see around you.
The land under your neighborhood once fed the state. Knowing that history changes how you see the place you live. Drive the older roads through Goodyear, Avondale or Litchfield Park and you can feel it. They run straight and flat in a way modern suburbs rarely do, because the grid was never meant for houses. It was meant for farms, and the story of how those farms arrived begins, improbably, with a tire company. In 1916, Goodyear Tire and Rubber sent an executive named Paul Litchfield west with a problem to solve. Tires of the day relied on cotton cord, and World War I had choked off the supply of Egyptian cotton. Litchfield found his answer in Arizona, where Pima cotton, a long-staple variety bred from Egyptian stock,
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The Bug Guy
Honoring Veterans Day: Protecting Phoenix Valley Homes, One Household at a Time Every November 11th, communities across the Phoenix Valley pause to honor the men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces. Veterans Day is more than a date on the calendar — it’s a reminder of the sacrifices made to protect our freedoms, and it’s an opportunity for local businesses to give something back to the veterans who call the Valley home. For homeowners in Goodyear, Buckeye, Mesa, Litchfield Park, and surrounding communities, that “something back” often takes a practical form: pest control services. The Sonoran Desert climate creates a unique set of challenges for homeowners, and veterans transitioning back to civilian life or settling into retirement in the Valley quickly learn that pest management isn’t optional here — it’s essential. The West Valley’s warm winters and scorching summers make it a haven for pests that thrive in arid conditions. Scorpions, particularly the bark scorpion, are a year-round concern, seeking out cool, dark spaces inside homes. Termites — both subterranean and drywood varieties — can cause significant structural damage before homeowners even notice signs of an infestation. Rodents, roof rats especially, are drawn to the shade and shelter that Valley homes provide, while spiders, ants, and crickets round out the list of common household intruders. Many local pest control companies use Veterans Day as an occasion to offer discounted services, free inspections, or ongoing veteran pricing programs. These gestures matter: veterans often manage fixed incomes, VA benefits, or the financial adjustments that come with military-to-civilian transitions, and a reliable pest-free home is one less thing to worry about.
Beyond discounts, some companies partner with veteran-owned businesses for supplies or hire veterans directly, recognizing the discipline, attention to detail, and reliability that military service instills — qualities that translate well into technical trades like pest inspection and treatment. This Veterans Day, West Valley residents can honor local veterans by supporting companies that give back, while veterans themselves can take advantage of the specials many providers offer. It’s a small but meaningful way for the pest control industry to say thank you to those who served.
Submitted by Larry Cash, of Estrella Mountain Pest Control.
GOODYEAR
Expires 11/30
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Cook With Zona
Thanksgiving is around the corner and you have to come up with a side dish for Aunt Jenny’s family gathering. This easy, gooey, melt-in-your-mouth mac n cheese recipe is a go to crowd pleaser and is sure to be a hit! Ingredients • 8oz macaroni or similar shaped pasta • 1 Round block or Boursin • 1 cup freshly grated white cheddar, packed pre- shredded is harder to melt • 1 cup heavy cream • 1/2 cup milk • 1/2 tsp salt • 1 cup breadcrumbs
Directions 1. Start by cooking the pasta according to directions. Once it’s cooked, drain and set to the side. 2. Melt 2 tbsp of butter in a pot. Once melted, whisk in the flour until there are no clumps. Slowly pour in the heavy cream. 3. Then drop in the Boursin block and cheddar and mix until creamy. If it’s too thick, because it will thicken up as it sits with the pasta, you can add some milk. I add around 1/2 a cup. 4. Pour over the pasta.You can toast some breadcrumbs in 2 tbsp of melted butter too then add that on top. 5. Enjoy!
• 4 tbsp butter • 2 tbsp flour
Want to see previous recipes by Zona? Scan the QR code to see all past recipes on our website!
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Puzzles & Games Soduku rules. Fill every row, column, and 3 × 3 block with the numbers 1 to 9 without repeating them. Solutions are on our website www.EstrellaPublishing.com, or scan the QR code. 1 8 2 4 7 7 3 3 4 1 5 7 1 8 3 5 Hard
1 8
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Expert 5
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Master 2
Thanksgiving Crossword
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