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Local gumshoes pen tell-all book about finding lost loved ones

TEMPE — Most people never experience what it is like not knowing who their real birth parents are.

The book, Back to the Beginning ($18.95, Perfect Paperback), gives readers an opportunity to do just that.  Co-written by Ava Friddle, Judy Andrews and Kristen Hamilton and Joe Bardin, the book is a snapshot of stories about adoption searches and reunions that the authors have experienced throughout their careers as private investigators.

Hamilton, along with her mother, Friddle, and sister, Andrews, formed a family-owned business called Research, Etc., Inc., in 1995 in Scottsdale. While the business specializes in adoption searches, they also conduct investigations involving all aspects of information research.

Hamilton states that it was after their first experiences in the business that the family realized that this was “something we really loved.”

Shortly after opening their agency, Hamilton and Andrews became certified as Confidential Intermediaries and were trained how to handle reunions between adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents.

Hamilton’s goal in writing this book was to show people the ins and outs of adoption searches and reunions.

But “every case is different, and no two people are the same,” Hamilton says.

The first chapter discusses their background as well as a brief introduction on how they typically handle adoption searches.  The authors write:

“It is our opinion, an opinion that we’ve formed through the years of experience acting as intermediaries, that contact, regardless of who makes it, should be approached discreetly, respectfully and considerately.”

Hamilton explains how emotional these situations can be for people, and the need for it to be handled slowly and carefully so that both parties have plenty of time to feel safe.

The following chapters in the book are separated by the different stories about individual searches.

Hamilton and her co-authors will be showcasing their book this Friday at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe.  The event will begin at 7 p.m. for a book signing and excerpt reading.

Todd Denen, a past client of Research, Etc., Inc., will also be attending the event with his birth mother.  He and his mother are one of the stories that are written in the book.  Hamilton wanted Denen to attend the event so that readers would be able to attach a real face to the stories.

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.

Crown King clings to life in the Bradshaw wilderness

CROWN KING — Tombstone is officially known as “the town too tough too die.” That dubious distinction, however, may be more appropriately applied to Crown King.

Springing up in the 1880s around a cluster of gold mines high in the Bradshaw Mountains, Crown King has survived a catastrophic flood, a blood feud between its founding claim holders, a population that has at times approached zero, discontinued service from the U.S. Postal Service and at least five fires.

The most recent, the Lane 2 fire, consumed almost 10,000 acres in early July. Although the burn line came within yards of the town, the efforts of several hundred fire fighters, and some fortuitously timed monsoon humidity, succeeded in saving Crown King yet again.

There are several ways to reach Crown King from Phoenix. The most commonly used route heads north on Interstate 17, exits at Bumble Bee (Exit 248), and heads west on Crown King Road (NF-259). The unpaved road meanders through the nearly uninhabited towns of Bumble Bee and Cleator for several miles before beginning its ascent into the mountains.

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INTERACTIVES

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Bumble Bee was established in the 1870s as a stage stop between Phoenix and Prescott. Cleator was built about the same time around series of gold claims along nearby Turkey Creek. In 1904, it became a railroad stop between Mayer and Crown King. Today, Cleator is home to six permanent residents and one world-class bar (in this writer’s humble opinion).

The Cleator Bar, open most weekends is a ramshackle affair – dim and heaped with the detritus of a hundred years on the frontier’s edge. Rusty license plates, beat-up mining equipment, yellowed Polaroids of bygone deer hunts, a life-sized cutout of John Wayne, and several pegged rattlesnake hides cover every surface. Weekend warriors from the suburbs sit alongside old cowboys, and Dave and Darlene keep a healthy supply of cold beer and fresh peanuts on the bar. [After a day spent bouncing around the dusty backcountry, three bucks for an icy Budweiser and the company of an antlered gator head seem like quite a bargain.]

Beyond Cleator, the road turns southwest and gains elevation. Long, scraggly pines appear on either side of the rocky switchbacks. The extent of the recent fire is revealed when the upper slopes come into view above. Charred pine trunks cover the mountainsides like porcupine quills, and the soil is scorched black.

But just beyond the bridge leading into town, glimpses of green appear. Crown King – its cabins and general store protected by a canopy of ponderosa pines and applied in sunlight – lies within this forest.

The saloon is the heart of the town. Established in 1904 in Oro Belle (a gold-mining town that once sat five miles away), the saloon building was taken down and reassembled “board by board” in Crown King around 1910. Stepping inside feels a little like traversing some kind of cosmic wormhole into the past: A battered pool table commands the center of the room, stuffed mule deer heads adorn the walls, sawdust covers the floor, and sepia-toned photos of Crown King’s glory days line the walls. Bottles clink as the jukebox belts out Roy Acuff and Patsy Cline.

The saloon always has live entertainment on the weekends and rooms for rent upstairs, but there are several other rustic places to stay. The town also boasts a chapel, general store, nearby campground and an outstanding restaurant called The Mill, which was built around the actual stamp mill from the old Gladiator Mine.

The route from I-17 to Crown King is about 26 miles. The road up the mountainside is often steep with extreme drop-offs and amazing views a few feet from your tires. It can be a little intimidating, but apart from the occasional stretch of “washboard” conditions, it’s never too rough or technically difficult. Although you’ll be more comfortable in a truck or SUV, regular passenger cars make the trip all the time (especially in the summer when the temperature on top is usually fifteen degrees cooler than it is in Phoenix.)

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com .

Scottsdale charity lends ‘helping hands’

It took Kathy Donaldson 17 years of working in law enforcement to have what she described as her most memorable day. It was May 15, 1991.

That’s when Donaldson was serving a traffic warrant on a man who “went berserk,” and she broke her back in three places.

The crushing blows forced her to retire and re-evaluate her life’s purpose and religious beliefs.

“I was depressed and considered suicide after the incident,” Donaldson says. “I just didn’t see that God had everything planned. I was meant to give back to the community, I didn’t just want to sit around and play golf.”

Donaldson, 52, had relocated to Arizona and started Arizona Helping Hands, a statewide nonprofit that helps needy families. It offers crisis intervention, help for pregnant teens and more, including support for the largest holiday toy drive in Maricopa County.

“She doesn’t separate her personal life from the work she does with Arizona Helping Hands,” says Chris Espinoza, an AHH boardmember. “She really opens her heart to people.”

In 2006, the organization’s revenues topped $1.4 million, according to tax documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Those records show AHH brought 250,000 toys to about 40,000 families in the county, delivered lunch to 900 needy school kids for seven weeks and helped another 350 learn to read. It also provided eye exams and scholarships.

Donaldson says her goal is to expand the organization to Flagstaff and Tucson in the near future while keeping the overhead low so that the money can go where it’s needed most.

SMALL STEPS TO SUCCESS

Donaldson got her start in community work with the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, Boys and Girls Club and the Paradise Valley School District.

“She has an unbelievable willingness to help anyone,” says Renie Scibona, a local newspaper reporter who has covered community organizations Donaldson helped. “She was instrumental in opening the North East Phoenix Boys and Girls Club branch.”

To help fund a National Honor Society seminar for school kids in Paradise Valley, Donaldson founded the Paradise Valley Volunteer Parents and raised $100,000 for a week-long event.

“If you have no ulterior motives, money comes rolling in,” Donaldson says. “But I realized the need was greater than just one school district, and that’s when we founded Arizona Helping Hands.”

A PROMISE MADE

After working with Paradise Valley Volunteer Parents, Donaldson created Arizona Helping Hands based on a promise she had made to her sister, who was diagnosed with cancer at age 28 and given six months to live.

She died five years later, but not before she gave Donaldson some advice from her deathbed.

“The day before she died she told me to do a good deed everyday and to not take credit for it,” says Donaldson.

Donaldson is still an integral part of AHH. Today, the organization sends children to camp with all of the supplies they need and offers dental care for low-income families.

When she is not in the office, Donaldson lives in Scottsdale and likes to spend time with her husband and co-founder of AHH, who is in hospice care.

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.