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Dear Editor,
I hope that you will allow me the opportunity to use our local newspaper to express our deep gratitude and appreciation to San Manuel residents and those others throughout the Tri-Community who have volunteered and supported the Copper Town Association (CTA) and the Copper Town Days (CTD) Reunion Event for the past three years.
Only those who have spent time coming to our regular monthly meetings understand how much work putting on a community event actually is, but because it is a labor of love for those who volunteer and those of us who sit on the board, it looks like the event and the CTA are here to stay. Many people don’t know who we are, what we do and why.
Four years ago a group of residents, mostly the group that made up the Historical Society and the museum began talking about how they could ‘market’ San Manuel, how they could get people to come see our little community and hopefully decide that it’s a nice place to live. A community-wide open house of sorts was born.
At first the real estate professionals wanted to coordinate a date and have every vacant house in the community on showcase. However, through many hours of discussion and even some severe disagreements about what kind of event they had in mind, a reunion event was decided upon which has become known as Copper Town Days. The original organizers were pleasantly surprised with the feedback from visitors or the inaugural even. The debriefing meeting that followed ended with the decision to form an association that would be the fiscal agent and major fundraising vehicle for the annual Copper Town Days event.
Our mission is to provide for the betterment of the Tri-Community by promoting economic and social opportunities while preserving the area’s mining heritage. A major objective of CTA was to support other community groups and organizations that impacted the lives of women and children in a positive and healthy manner, so the directors voted to adopt the Tri-Community Food Bank, Safe Journey House and Adelante Juntos Coalition.
These organizations were doing the very important work of reducing hunger, domestic violence and substance abuse and the board of directors voted to support their efforts financially and morally.
CTD Chairman Fred Roybal spearheads the major fundraiser for Copper Town Days which is the annual Spring golf tournament, the money raised at this tournament goes towards underwriting the annual CTD event and then a portion of those proceeds are donated to the groups identified above. The remainder of the proceeds goes to the next year’s fundraising efforts and events.
Everyone who decides they want to become an association member does it because they have a love for this community. With the expertise and experience of many, we can do so much more than with a few.
Our current project was started after many residents came to us asking for us to advocate for getting a grocery store back in our area. We collected over 1300 signatures of adults who want access to fresh, nutritional, affordable food after the Basha family instructed us to do so. They will now consider our request to locate a Food City in our area.
CTA is here to help build up our Tri-Community & we welcome all comments and suggestions. They can be sent to marie85631@yahoo.com or coppertownassn@yahoo.com or come to a meeting any second Tuesday of each month at 321 Avenue B. Every meeting is an open public meeting and the board is happy to hear from any and all residents of Oracle, Mammoth and San Manuel.
We will be a loud and convincing voice to Supervisor Rios, Sheriff Babeu and our other representatives to insure that we get our fair share of the county budget and services. But we need to know your concerns and your desires for the Tri-Community. It is our hope that you will join us at the February meeting or drop us an email at the address above.
Thank you and a very happy and prosperous new year to all from the Copper Town Association.
Sincerely,
/s/ Marie Roybal
President
Copper Town Association
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