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
August 2026
August 2026 1
Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
PITTS 21 Brackets Tooth Contouring ♦ Gingival Laser 3-D Imaging ♦ Invisalign ♦ Braces
Published by Estrella Publishing LLC, PO Box 6962, Goodyear AZ 85338.
Catherine Uretsky, Publisher and Editor Talia Ebert, Assistant Editor 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.
BEFORE & AFTER Braces & Gingival Laser
14997 W. Bell Rd #150 Surprise
4175 N. Pioneer Dr #107 Verrado
*emotional support dog on staff
www.BaileyOrthoAZ.com
AMERICA’S RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL PAINTING EXPERTS
Whether it's a fresh coat for the inside or outside of your home, PAINT CORPS® guarantees excellence in every brushstroke.
ROC #351010
CALL TODAY FOR HIGH QUALITY WATER
ROC#246437 - Licensed, Bonded, & Insured for your protection. www.AlsPlumbingLLC.com
2 Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
August 2026
BUILT FOR ARIZONA BUILT TOUGH
New Construction, Repairs, Recovers, Maintenance Installation of Gutters Shingles, Tile, Built Up, Single Ply, Foam & Coatings, Metal, Shake
LET’S WEATHER IT TOGETHER Call JBS Today!
www.JBSroofingAZ.com
ROC #’s: 061127 - 287012 - 198009 - 082024 - 318282 ROC #’s: 061127 - 287012 - 082024 - 318282
August 2026 3
Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
WE'LL HELP YOU RECLAIM YOUR PROPERTY BY MAKING YOUR PEST PROBLEMS A THING OF THE PAST Most Popular Services BOOK NOW GENERAL PEST CONTROL TERMITE EXTERMINATION SCORPION EXTERMINATON 623-680-6619 www.estrellamtnpest.com Larry Cash - Veteran Owned & Operated
Discounts! First-Time Customers, First Responders, & Military
4 Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
August 2026
From Me To You... There is a strange amnesia that comes with rapid change, and most of us never notice it happening. Something once impossible arrives, stuns us for a up, which says less about SpaceX and more about my attention span, currently rivaling a golden retriever near a tennis court.
season, then folds into the background of ordinary life. We stop looking up. I include myself, since my capacity for wonder has the shelf life of a rotisserie chicken. Consider what it must have felt like in 1938 when Orson Welles aired his radio adaptation of War of the Worlds. People genuinely believed Martians had landed in New Jersey. Cars clogged the roads as families fled imaginary invaders. It sounds comical now, and I like to think I would have been smarter than that, though I am relatively sure I would have been the first to peel out of my driveway. The fear then was real because an alien arrival still lived entirely in fiction, so when it seemed to happen, panic filled the space where understanding should have been. Compare that to watching a SpaceX rocket climb into the sky, something that would have seemed like pure fantasy a couple decades ago. I remember standing in California watching one go up, feeling genuine amazement and a strange secondhand pride, as if I had personally contributed more than mild applause. Now those launches happen so often I barely glance
This isn’t a failure of imagination. It is simply how attention works. We are built to notice change, not sustain wonder at a fixed state, however extraordinary. The first time is astonishing. The hundredth time is Tuesday, and most of us can barely stay awake through Tuesdays as it is. What’s worth paying attention to is not that awe fades, because it always will, but what we do once astonishment wears off. Do we shrug and scroll on, or think about what we’ve built and where it’s taking us. The real question is whether any of us look up long enough to ask what we want the next headline to be, before it becomes another shrug and a glance back at our phones. Because at the rate we’re going, the aliens could actually land, and most of us would just check if there was a post about it on Facebook. Catherine Uretsky Editor, The Park Magazine info@estrellapublishing.com 623.398.5541
August 2026 5
Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
Car Club
Whether you’re a seasoned mechanic or just love the look of classic cars, come and be part of our community. Let’s bring the Park community together with our shared love for classic cars! Classic Car & Project Car Enthusiasts! Join us the third Saturday of month for a Park Car Club Meeting!
January 16 - 8:00 a.m. thru 11:00 a.m. February 20 - 8:00 a.m. thru 11:00 a.m. March 20 - 8:00 a.m. thru 11:00 a.m. April 17 - 8:00 a.m. thru 11:00 a.m. May 15 - 8:00 a.m. thru 11:00 a.m. Location: Honeysuckle Street & Old Litchfield Road, Litchfield Square.
Parkcarclub.com
Future Meeting Dates: 2026 -2027
September 19 - 8:00 a.m. thru 11:00 a.m. October 17 - 8:00 a.m. thru 11:00 a.m. November 21 - 8:00 a.m. thru 11:00 a.m. December 19 - 8:00 a.m. thru 11:00 a.m.
6 Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
August 2026
AUGUST 21 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 13, 2026 When four fading Broadway stars hear about a small-town high school’s decision regarding the annual prom, they swoop in to save the day – while also hoping to revive their own careers. Their over-the- top activism clashes with small-town traditions, leading to chaos, comedy, and ultimately, change. The Prom is a joyous celebration of being true to yourself and dancing to your own beat!
Get tickets now at azbroadway.org 623.776.8400
August 2026 7
Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
Action!
People Are Going to the Movies Less The numbers are real and a little alarming. But the story of what’s actually happening to movie theaters is more complicated, and more interesting, than the headlines suggest. Let’s start with the facts, because they’re genuinely sobering. Domestic ticket sales in 2025 came in at roughly 769 million, down 37% from the 1.2 billion tickets sold in 2019. The box office generated about $8.8 billion last year, still more than 22% behind its pre-pandemic peak. Movie theater chains are closing mid-tier suburban multiplexes at a steady pace, and overall visits to theaters dropped another 10% year- over-year in 2025. If you want to make the case that cinema is in trouble, the data is right there. But the picture is more nuanced than a simple decline narrative. A Pew Research study from mid-2025 found that 53% of American adults had visited a movie theater in the prior twelve months. A separate Cinema United report put that figure at 77% of Americans between ages 12 and 74. People have not stopped going to the movies. What they’ve stopped doing is going habitually, the casual Tuesday night trip, the
rainy Saturday matinee, the “let’s just see whatever’s playing” mindset that defined theatrical attendance for decades. What’s replaced it is something closer to event behavior. Audiences turn out in massive numbers for the right film, the right franchise, the right cultural moment, the right reason to leave the couch, and then stay home for everything else. The theaters that are surviving and even thriving understand this. Alamo Drafthouse, dine-in experiences, recliner seating, premium IMAX formats, the industry is betting that fewer, better cinemas can sustain a real business even if habitual attendance never comes back. The studios are adapting too. Films shot specifically for IMAX, anniversary screenings, re-releases of beloved classics, all of these are attempts to give audiences a reason that streaming simply can’t replicate. You cannot watch Christopher Nolan in your living room the same way you can in a theater, and the industry knows it. Cinema isn’t dying. It’s shedding everything that was average about it and betting that what’s left is worth the drive.
8 Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
August 2026
Back to School
Getting Kids Ready for School in Arizona’s August Furnace Let’s be honest. Back to school in Arizona doesn’t mean crisp air and falling leaves. It means walking out at 7am and immediately regretting every life choice that led you to live somewhere the sidewalks can fry an egg. So while other states are pulling out sweaters, we’re pulling out sunscreen and hoping the bus stop doesn’t melt. Here’s how to get your kids ready without losing your mind, or your air conditioning bill, before the first bell rings. Start with the sleep schedule, and start now, not the night before. Kids who’ve been staying up until midnight all summer will not magically adjust just because you announced “school starts Monday.” Ease bedtime back by fifteen minutes every few days so the transition feels gentle instead of like a hostage negotiation. Pack the backpack the night before, always. Mornings are chaotic enough without hunting for a missing shoe while the car is already running just to keep the AC going. Speaking of which, let the car cool down before
loading kids into it. Nobody needs third degree burns from a seatbelt buckle before first period. Hydration matters more here than almost anywhere else. Send a real water bottle, not the flimsy one that’s been rolling around the pantry since spring. Arizona heat sneaks up fast, and a dehydrated kid is a cranky, unfocused kid. Talk to them about what recess actually looks like in August. Many schools shift outdoor time to early morning or move it indoors entirely once temperatures climb. Knowing this ahead of time saves you from a confused kid asking why they didn’t get to run around outside. Finally, do a trial run of the morning routine a few days before school starts. Practice waking up, getting dressed, and eating breakfast at the actual time you’ll need to. It sounds excessive, but a dry run beats a full meltdown on day one. You’ve survived an Arizona summer. A few sweaty mornings of back to school prep will be nothing.
August 2026 9
Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
Bright Days Ahead. Bright Days Ahead. Keep Them Crash Free. Keep Them Crash Free.
info@sadd.org
www.sadd.org
SADDNation
10 Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
August 2026
The Bug Guy
Welcome to the Thunderdome: Pest Control in the West Valley in August Let’s address the obvious: in the west valley, August isn’t a month, it’s a hostage situation. The sun doesn’t rise so much as it reports for duty, and by
110-degree wasteland, and everything with legs (or no legs, looking at you, snakes) wants a room. Scorpions, for instance, become Olympic-level escape artists in August, slipping through gaps so small you didn’t know your house had gaps. You’ll find one in your shoe, your bathtub, or — in true Arizona fashion — casually vibing on your ceiling at 2 a.m. like it pays rent. And let’s not forget the crickets, who apparently believe the appropriate volume for a summer night is “small jet engine,” and the ever-popular packrats, who treat your garage like an estate sale and your car wiring like a chew toy. Pest control companies basically run on a seasonal adrenaline spike every June through September, dispatching technicians in full hazmat-adjacent gear to spray perimeters that will be re-invaded by Thursday. It’s less “pest control” and more “pest negotiation” — a temporary cease-fire in a war that never really ends, just relocates. So if you live here, accept your role: you are not the homeowner. You are the landlord. Your tenants are uninvited, six-legged (or fewer), and extremely committed to indoor living. Pay your pest control bill like rent — because really, that’s exactly what it is.
9 a.m. the sidewalks are basically griddles auditioning for a breakfast diner. And while you’re inside hugging your AC vent like it’s a long-lost relative, something else has had the exact same idea — every bug, rodent, and scorpion in a five-mile radius has also decided that your house looks like a five-star resort. This is the dirty secret of desert pest control: it’s not that summer creates more bugs. It’s that summer turns your home into the only Holiday Inn Express in a
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!
Submitted by Larry Cash, of Estrella Mountain Pest Control.
August 2026 11
Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
$1000 OFF Braces or Invisalign
4830 N Litchfield Rd #101
Expires 9/30/2026
12 Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
August 2026
Cook With Zona
• 1/2 cup sour cream • 1 cup Caesar salad croutons, crushed • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese • 3 tablespoons butter, melted • Chopped fresh parsley
Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350°. 2. Pat chicken dry sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder. 3. Place chicken in a greased 13x9-in. baking dish. 4. In a small bowl, combine salad dressing and sour cream; spread over chicken. 5. In a separate bowl, combine crushed croutons, Parmesan cheese and melted butter; sprinkle over chicken. 6. Bake, uncovered, until a thermometer reads 165°, 45-55 minutes. 7. Sprinkle with parsley. 8. Serve with salad for an easy healthy dinner or pasta if you need something more filling.
Caesar Chicken
Prep: 5 min. Bake: 45 min. Yield: 6 servings
This tasty baked Caesar chicken recipe translates all the flavors of Caesar salad into a delicious, easy-to- make chicken dinner. Ingredients • 6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (6 ounces each) • 1/4 teaspoon salt • 1/4 teaspoon pepper • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder • 1 cup creamy Caesar salad dressing
Want to see previous recipes by Zona? Scan the QR code to see all past recipes on our website!
$ 19 95
$ 19 95 BEAT THE HEAT! PLUS FREON A/C PERFORMANCE CHECK
SUPER SAVER OIL CHANGE
Up to 5 quarts bulk oil
OR
FULL SYNTHETIC OIL CHANGE $ 49 95
We’ll thoroughly inspect your compressor, belts, hoses, pressure and temperature.
TOTAL AUTO CARE
Up to 5 quarts full synthetic oil
Supply chain disruptions may affect availability and price points of some oil products specifically 0w20; Excludes diesels and Euro oil weights additional • Valid at participating locations • Most cars and light trucks • Shop supplies additional Plus up to $6 disposal fee Excludes Diesels • *Lube chassis where applicable Not valid with other offers • No cash value • See store for details • Charge for additional service/parts, if needed • Expires 9-30-26 • 4214-4274Estrella826 OIL CHANGE • LUBE CHASSIS* REPLACE FILTER • 22 POINT INSPECTION
FREON, EVAC AND RECHARGE EXTRA • Shop supplies additional • Most vehicles Not valid with other offers • No cash value • One coupon per customer At participating locations with this ad • Charge for additional parts/service if needed See store for complete details • Expires 9-30-26 • 4214-4274Estrella826
GOODYEAR / LITCHFIELD PARK 14240 W. Indian School Rd • 623-935-2446
GOODYEAR / AVONDALE 660 N. Dysart Rd • 623-266-9899
BIGOTIRES.COM
Estrella Publishing 2026-Aug.indd 1
7/15/26 3:04 PM
August 2026 13
Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
Puzzles & Games Back to School and Back to a challenging Sudoku. Fill every row, column, and 3 × 3 block with the numbers 1 to 9 without repeating them.Overlap boxes belong to both connecting grids. Any number placed in an overlap cell must be valid in both grids simultaneously. Solutions are on our website www.EstrellaPublishing.com, or scan the QR code.
Difficulty: Easy
Monday, 20th July 2026
418 596 9 3 1 4 6 2 4 8 9 7 1
478 612 6 5 2 8 1 8 2 4 5 9 3
7 3
3 8
8 7 2 1 6 3 9 7 6 8 5 581 763
3 5 7 6 9 2 1 2 6 1 4 849 367
2 1 7
8
6
9 8 9
283 791 9 4 5 2 5 2 9 7 4 3 6
672 194 3 7 8 6 8 1 4 6 2 7 5
8 1
1 5
7 3 6 5 2 4 8 3 1 8 9 197 653
5 4 3 8 9 2 1 7 8 3 2 236 487
www.samurai-sudoku.com
14 Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
August 2026
Tongue Twisters Just for Fun: Tongue Twisters
For the most laughs, read these as fast as you can without first rehearsing them in your mind.
1. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. 2. Fresh fried fish. 3. Eleven benevolent elephants. 4. Swill wristwatch. 5. Six slippery snails slid slowly seaward. 6. Truly rural. 7. Six sick hicks nick six slick bricks with picks and sticks. 8. Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter’s bitter. 9. Rural juror. 10. Crisp crusts crackle crunchily. 11. If two witches were watching two watches, which witch would watch which watch? 12. The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick. 13. She sells seashells by the seashore. 14. If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he
choose? 15. Ed had edited it. 16. Tom threw Tim three thumbtacks.
17. I slit the sheet, and on the slitted sheet I sit. 18. How can a clam cram in a clean cream can? 19. A synonym for cinnamon is a cinnamon synonym. 20. He threw three free throws.
Submitted by Jim Surmanek
August 2026 15
Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
623.250.3658 CallAQuality.com
Home of the 100% Guarantee. We get it right the first time — or we fix it for Free.
Keeping your Litchfield Community Cool and Comfortable for over 31 years.
Our customers in Litchfield
$2,500 OFF NEW SYSTEMS Includes qualifying manufacture and dealer savings on select complete systems. Plus, ask us about our financing options starting as low as $4.35 a day.
TIME FOR YOUR AC TUNE UP $59 AC Tune up and performance report. Includes full cooling system evaluation, performance testing, and up to 1 pound of refigerant if applicable. We get great reviews about our AC tune ups! FREE SECOND OPINIONS Get a free second opinion and estimate on AC Repairs and Replacements before making a big repair or replacement decision, and see why we are different from the rest of the valley companies.
Check out our plumbing coupons online.
16 Estrella Publishing - The Park magazine
August 2026 www.callAQuality.com 623.250.3658
520 North Bullard, #43 Goodyear, AZ 85338
Schedule Today
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online