Last Wednesday Mayor Bill Diak rolled out a plan he’s been wanting to do for the last decade. It’s a community-wide volunteer organization that will unite under one umbrella the resources and manpower of Page’s faith-based communities, non-profits, businesses and every day citizens.

The program is called For Our City Page. There are eleven “For Our City” organizations throughout Arizona. Mayor Diak introduced his plan during a breakfast meeting at the PERA Club Wednesday morning to about 100 people in attendance. The Page Fire Department and Page Police Department combined forces to cook and serve breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs, hashbrowns and pancakes, for those in attendance.

Prior to introducing the event’s keynote speaker Mayor Diak said he hopes For Our City Page will usher in a new era of volunteerism in Page.

The event’s keynote speaker was Kevin Hartke, who has several years of experience with For Our City Chandler, who explained the organizations best practices to those in attendance. Hartke’s presentation lasted about 40 minutes, after which a work session was held, during which those in attendance collaborated and wrote down some projects and needs they’d like to see get done in Page, and how those might be best addressed. Those ideas were given over to the Mayor at the end of the work session.

Hartke said combining Chandler’s faith groups, non-profits, businesses and individual citizens under one umbrella helped avoid overlap of work and services and the increased efficiency allowed more projects to get done, and the needs of more people to be addressed.

The plan itself is pretty simple, said Hartke: One, identify the problem. Two, find a solution to fix the problem. Three, mobilize a group of volunteers to tackle the problem.
At the top of the group of volunteers and the various faith communities, non-profits and businesses is a steering committee which will direct the resources of their volunteers in the most efficient way possible.

Hartke said that in most “For Our City” programs the mayor usually heads  the steering committee.

Mayor Diak reported to the city council during city council meeting later that night that he had already had several people express interest in being part of the steering committee.

Some projects other cities which have “For Our City” organizations have done are community literacy programs, house painting or yard maintenance for elderly or disabled community members, backpacks filled with school supplies for kids returning to school, and holiday food drives.

The mayor mentioned that this is a project he wanted to start eight or ten years ago but “it came at a time when Page was making staffing and budget cuts. The time and environment just wasn’t right,” he said.

Hartke added that other Arizona cities that have been doing “For Our City” programs will be happy to reach out to Page to offer methods to help Page get its own program up and running in a timely, efficient manner.

Mayor Diak said he got a lot of help organizing For Our City Page from Page’s new city manager, Mike Celaya, who has experience with it from other cities where he’s been employed.

Celaya addressed those in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting telling them that he’s seen the program do a lot of good in other cities and is sure it will do great things for Page too. He said he was enouraged by the turn out and the energy from those who came to be involved.

“I saw the soul of Page today,” he said.

After so many years in the wings Mayor Diak is happy to see it finally come to fruition.

“As Page moves forward with our strategic plan I think this is something we’re going to need,” he said.

If you, your family or your organization wants to be involved in For Our City Page email Robin Crowther, Executive Administrative Assistant to the City Manager, and let her know you want to be a part of it. Her email is rcrowther@pageaz.gov