Glendale Civic Pride Ambassadors

The Glendale Civic Pride Ambassadors have been in existence since 1994, when Mayor Elaine Scruggs initiated a volunteer citizens group to assist the city in increasing people’s awareness of the good things Glendale has to offer. The Ambassadors’ mission has become: to enhance the economic, social and cultural vitality of Glendale.

Our Mission

The Glendale Civic Pride Ambassadors are an organization of citizens with a deep sense of pride in their community dedicated to enhancing the economic, social, and cultural vitality of Glendale. Money raised through our many fundraising efforts is used to support this mission. CLICK HERE to download an up-to-date funding application for the Glendale Civic Pride Ambassadors and the Glendale Civic Pride Foundation (doc).

President’s Message

The Glendale Civic Pride Ambassadors (GCPA) is now in its 18th year of service to Glendale! We’re getting closer to that 20 year mark! We have a core group of members who have been with us since the beginning, plus many others who have been with us pretty close to that! We love and appreciate all of our members, old and new! An organization should always continue to grow and change with the times, and the GCPA Board tries to keep that as an ongoing goal for our organization.

Although there have been some minor changes to the City of Glendale Special Events schedule, we will continue to work the beverage booths at Glendale Glitters and two of the weekends following Glitters, the Glitter and Glow Block Party, and Chocolate Affaire. This has been GCPA’s major source of fundraising, and provides us with the opportunity to assist other organizations with projects or programs that benefit Glendale residents. With the money we raised in 2012, we have now been able to give back over $280,000 to our community.

We continue to partner with other local organizations such as the Soroptimist, the Kiwanis, the Lions, the Citizens Police Alumni Association of Glendale (CPAAG), the Fire Cadet Program from the Glendale Fire Department, and the Police Explorers Program from the Glendale Police Department. These organizations provide much-needed help in our booths at the Glendale Special Events and, in return, we make donations to their organizations to assist them with the great work they also do in our community.

Some of our donations in 2012 included a bronze plaque for fallen fighter pilot, Lt. Colonel Frank Bryant, Jr., from Luke Air Force Base. Lt. Colonel Bryant was killed in Afghanistan on April 28, 2011. His Luke Air Force Base squadron wanted to rename the base’s gymnasium for him. Their request was granted, and we provided the plaque that was placed on the gymnasium in his memory. Some of our members were there when they had the rededication ceremony on April 30, 2012. What an honor to have the opportunity to be a part of this ceremony! We also made a substantial donation to Sahuaro Ranch Park for their Sahuaro Ranch Sustainability Pod Cast Project, which will help bring increased public awareness to the Ranch, on site and virtually on the world-wide web. Watch for more information about that in the near future! Additionally, we provided the funds to purchase and install special street signage in two more of Glendale’s historic neighborhoods! The GCPA Foundation held its first fundraiser, A Day at Manistee Ranch, to help defray operating costs at Manistee Ranch. We hope to plan a similar event in 2014. Our organization is going to be exploring the possibility of helping bring back some of the events that the City of Glendale has had to give up over the past few years. It will be fun to see what we can do, even if it’s on a much smaller scale than the original event.

We continue to do monthly Meet and Greets to give prospective members a chance to come and visit with GCPA members in an informal setting. The Meet and Greets, however, have also turned out to be a great way for current members to meet socially each month to catch up on what’s going on, so it has been a win-win for us! We meet at the Gas Light Inn in downtown Glendale. We love their hospitality and the chance to showcase their establishment. It also gets people to the downtown area, which we always love to do! We generally meet on the second Thursday each month from 6 to 8 p.m., but to be sure, look for our monthly newspaper announcements in the Glendale Star and the Arizona Republic, website updates, or call the GCPA voice mail line. We would love to have you join us!

We are always looking for fresh ideas and new projects for our members. We want to continue to bring awareness to what Glendale has to offer, and be an organization that people want to belong to! We have so much to offer – not only community involvement, but networking opportunities, and social activities. Let’s see where GCPA can be by the time of our 20-year anniversary in September 2014!

Nancy Lenox
President, Glendale Civic Pride Ambassadors