Arizona United Families

We, at United Families Arizona, realize that the families of the great state of Arizona face many challenges and have many constraints on their precious time. Our children need us, our extended families need us, our schools need us, and our faith communities need us. However, we must never forget that our community and our nation need us as well.

Here are just a few things that require your attention:

- A crucial presidential election this fall
- An Arizona state amendment that clarifies the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman
- The Continual attacks on parental rights and the role of mothers and fathers
- The crisis in our schools that includes the availability and use of illegal drugs and alcohol and the student indoctrination of values and morals that are contrary to your family's beliefs and standards

We, at UFA, want to help you in your efforts to be involved in your community. We are reaching out to you with an invitation to become a part of this important effort. WE NEED GOOD FAMILIES LIKE YOURS TO JOIN US!

There is something each one of us can and should be doing to protect and preserve the family!

1. Begin by SUBSCRIBING, using the “Get Updates on the Same Sex Marriage Issue” on the left, to our regular newsletters and news alerts. If you are already a subscriber, great!

2. Get registered to VOTE. Go to www.servicearizona.com to make sure that your voice is heard.

3. Join United Families Arizona as a MEMBER by donating $25 or more

4. VOLUNTEER with United Families Arizona. It may be something as small as calling your state legislator, monitoring the activity at the Capitol or putting a sign in your yard showing support for the Marriage Amendment.

As a state chapter of United Families, we have many goals for 2008:

- Promote the Arizona Marriage Amendment for the November 4 ballot.
- Sponsor programs in Arizona communities for educational purposes and encourage citizens to be involved.
- Follow state legislation and promote family values.
- Be involved in our communities and our public schools to promote strong family values.
- Uphold the Five Respects of United Families International: Family and Marriage, Sanctity of life, Parenthood, Culture and Religion, and National Sovereignty.
- Increase and unite our UFA pro-family membership statewide.

Help United Families Arizona in the battle to protect marriage!!!

We have lots to do!
The families of the great state of Arizona NEED YOU to be involved!

Together we can accomplish our goals!

Sincerely,
Lina Hatch
President, United Families Arizona

United Families Arizona was proud to host a booth at the Arizona Families for Home Education (AFHE) Convention July 18 – 19, 2008 at the Phoenix Convention Center. About 4,000 vendors and convention attendees participated this year. Lectures and workshops were available and literature was distributed throughout the event.

The UFA booth attracted many passersby with colorful posters, a raffle sign-up, and a jar full of candy! Free literature included information about United Families International and specifically about our Arizona Chapter. We had handouts to explain the “Stay Alive” program, and literature on myths and facts about same gender “marriage”. Becoming a UFA member was encouraged as well as the purchase of the United Families’s Issues Guides. We successfully gathered contact information from over one hundred individuals requesting our newsletters, and many volunteered to help with the “YES for Marriage” campaign.

This was UFA’s second year with a presence at the convention. With the cooperation of the YESforMarriage.com Campaign, we are making a number of important connections to significant pro-family organizations such as Arizona Families for Home Education and the entire home school community in Arizona.

Arizona chapter’s Prescott group reports huge success for their July 4th fundraiser

Our race went off without a hitch. We raised enough to meet our goal of giving 5 thousand to United Families for the marriage amendment and enough to fund us through the year with feed the hungry. We also raised enough to provide shoes to 13 elementary schools in our tri city community. We exceeded our expectations and had over three hundred runners.

We made it a family run by handing out dilly bars after the race and trying to make it cost effective for families to race. We thought we would just break even on our registration fees vs. the costs of putting the race on but actually came out over one thousand ahead. We had a lot of positive comments and feel that we will have even more major sponsors next year.

We had the United Families logo featured on all the t-shirts along with the major sponsors. The t-shirt were designed by a running friend and looked great. We have had to make an additional order as we had many requesting additional shirts. A boy scout from our community got his eagle project by setting up the aide stations along the route. The scouts manned the stations and did a great job while looking great in their scout uniforms. We had Gheral Brownlow’s famous cut outs of animal characters along the route to entertain the runners. Susan Anderson’s girls rode their horses at the end of the race to make sure there were no stragglers or lost runners to bring in. (They found one)

We had no injuries or accidents and had plenty of volunteers to pull everything off without a hitch. We are very grateful to Gheral Brownlow, who passed away this year, for getting us set up with and helping us establish this as a United Families yearly fund raiser.