Accessing Arizona

Josh Johnson, Jake Driskel, Dominick Aiello and Kelly Case.

Back in August, Accessing Arizona met up with Phil Pangrazio, the top dog at ABIL (www.abil.org) with an idea about raising some money for the new fitness center he’s preparing to build at the Disabilities Empowerment Center in Phoenix. The Virginia G. Piper Sports & Fitness Center (www.disabilitysportscenter.com) is going to be the first of it’s kind in the southwest. The entire center is designed for people with disabilities to participate in both competitive sports and recreational activities.

What came from the meeting was an idea to create a calendar that highlighted those who will benefit from such a facility. And rather than just taking photos of people playing sports, the calendar features portraits of athletes around Arizona taken by professional photographers. The idea being to show more of the person behind the sport rather than just someone active in a sport.

So for the better part of four months, I took advantage of people’s time and talent. I recruited Jim Vigileos and Jerry O’Connor, whom I now share a studio with, and one other really talented photographer, Blair Bunting (also Horizon HS alumni) to work with the athletes. This was a great project and I met some amazing people. It’s always a bonus when the people being photographed turn out to be fun, interesting and truly have a desire to live life. Hopefully that’s what you see in the photos.

Equally amazing is the plans for the facility. It’s going to be a state of the art center. The calendars are being sold for $15.00 a copy and 100% of the proceeds goes to the facility. For details visit www.disabilitysportscenter.com Please show your support by buying one or more copies. Don’t even bother nailing it to the wall because everyone who walks by is going to want to pull it down and look through the pages.

Kevin Messner, Dana Mathewson, Erik Hightower, and Katie Dickey

Jennifer Ruddell, Greg Hockensmith, John Tuzzolino and Corbin Beu