SaddleBrooke Community Outreach Enrichment Grant Funds “Five C’s” Education at Miami Memorial Library

School children in Arizona are taught the “Five C’s”—the five things that were once the main drivers of the state’s economy. While today the economic impact of cotton, cattle, citrus, copper and climate has changed somewhat, the “Five C’s” still remain an important tool for helping young students learn about our state’s history.

SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) awarded the Miami Memorial Library a $5,850 enrichment grant to provide educational programs about Arizona’s Five C’s to students from preschool through twelfth grade. Adult caregivers also attended along with the students.

Outside experts were hired to make a total of six presentations. The first of these, an overview of the Five C’s, was made by Mrs. Arizona 2023, Carolyn Larsen. Subsequent presentations were delivered at three-to-four-week intervals and coordinated with assistance from the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension. Students learned where citrus is most successfully grown in Arizona and took home books on how to grow citrus in a container. They received mini-bales of cotton, learned the best places in Arizona to grow cotton and received books on how cotton gets transformed into textiles. Students and adults learned about the different types of cattle raised in Arizona and during the final presentation, they were given a timeline for mining and copper in Southern Arizona. One of the books purchased for the last program included “Southern Arizona Mining.”

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In addition to paying for the speakers, SBCO funds were used to purchase door prizes and food as incentives at each program, supplies to create print advertisements, books for students to keep and books to increase the library collection specific to Arizona’s Five Cs. As a learning extension to the six scheduled Arizona Five C’s programs, the library engaged preschool students with music and movement story times and traditional story times in conjunction with the Arizona Five C’s programs.

According to Sue Pontel, the Miami Memorial Library Manager, “All in all, the enrichment benefit for our community was evidenced by the total attendance of 205.” This is a good result for a town with an estimated population of 1,538.