Mellow hikers at the Lost Ranch site on South Mountain
(photo by Nancy Patterson)
Warren Wasescha, Sun Lakes Hiking Club
Volunteers make the difference. To make a good club experience, you need the right combination of dedicated individuals willing to put their good talents to work for the betterment of the club. For the Sun Lakes Hiking Club, we’ve benefited from years of talented individuals helping out!
Our club founders established the basic guidelines for how we run the club. Those guidelines have pretty much stayed the same over the years: make group hiking fun, challenging, social, and safe.
Our board of directors follows those guidelines. They inform members of club policies, manage finances, keep records, and determine ways to keep making social hiking fun.
A group of hike leaders are at the core of our hiking experience, bringing their love of trailblazing to other hikers. We have hike leaders who have led hikes for years, and we always have room for new hike leaders at all hiking levels.
We have a team of volunteers who each year determine where we’ll have our multi-day special hike. This team does the strategic planning to make these hikes a reality, including pre-hiking the area, making hotel selections, and planning social outings and dinner venues. Ron Deraas and Joan Carlisle have done a great job leading this effort the past few years and are always looking for volunteers to help out with the next year’s special hike.
Barb Smith has managed our Meetup site, helping us communicate with each other about upcoming hikes and social gatherings. And now Ed Molieri is taking on that role.
Tim Donovan manages our Welcome Back Picnic, End-of-Season Club Picnic, and potluck get-togethers. Marilyn Harkins, Diane Alessi, and Henry Silberblatt make our December backyard brunch possible.
And there are many others who help out not listed here. Combined, it all adds up to a well-functioning club.
Interested in being a part of our club and hiking socially? We are a friendly, inclusive group welcoming all able-bodied hikers. Our goal is to make group hiking fun, challenging, social, and safe. We hike Mondays at three different intensity levels and often a second “mellow” or “moderate” hike on Wednesdays. Our club is open to anyone living in Sun Lakes and SunBird.
To learn more about our club, please type “Sun Lakes Hiking Club” into your web browser and look for our Meetup site. You’ll find information about our club along with photos and descriptions of past and future hikes. If you have questions about the club not answered on our website, please let me know at wjwasescha@gmail.com.
Hiking is one of the many rewarding activities you can do in our community. We look forward to hiking with you!