CLAIRE’S CAFÉ, owned by CLAIRE JOHNSON, is a finalist for the Good Neighbor Award, one of the 2016 Torch Awards to be awarded by the Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona. The award recognizes a company “that has shown a commitment to making southern Arizona a better place through community service.” Claire’s Café is located in Catalina and has been serving the community for 28 years. The BBB’s description highlights the free meals the cafe provides to more than 500 people in need every year on the day before Thanksgiving. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony May 5 at Casino del Sol Resort.
DARKAYNU, TUCSON’S JEWISH MONTESSORI PRESCHOOL, has hired JENNIFER MCDOWELL as lead teacher for the 2016-2017 school year. McDowell attended Iowa State University, where she received her B.S. in family and consumer sciences in 1999. After a number of years working with children in a variety of roles, she took a hiatus from the workforce to raise her family. A recent graduate of the Khalsa Montessori Teacher Training Program, McDowell is certified by the American Montessori Society (AMS). Originally from Iowa, she and her family have made Tucson home over the last six years.
A PJ LIBRARY promotion is being displayed on boxes of Yehuda Matzos for Passover to attract enrollment in the Harold Grinspoon Foundation program, which provides monthly free Jewish books for children ages 6 months to eight years throughout North America. In Southern Arizona, the program is coordinated by Mary Ellen Loebl at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, 577-9393 or pjlibrary@jfsa.org.
