Spotlight on
Volunteers – Margie Beach
Economic Development Creates Positive Community Benefits
Community volunteer leader Margie Beach believes that economic development is a process that improves the well being of a community by creating a balanced, healthy economy. Economic development allows individuals to earn income to support their families. It ensures that Cottonwood can provide adequate public services and facilities, and promotes community and business prosperity. Beach participates in organizations that work toward creating wealth within the community so individuals can purchase goods and services and businesses can grow and prosper.
Beach moved to Cottonwood in 1959 when she was a 7-year-old second grader. “When my family first moved here, Old Town was downtown,” Beach reminisces. Beach attributes her dad, George Thomas, for setting the example in community volunteerism. Thomas was a Lions Club member, a Cottonwood-Oak Creek School board member, and served with the Cottonwood Progressive Association, a group that promoted economic development.
Following in her father’s footsteps and yet blazing new trails herself, Beach works to bring economic development and prosperity to the greater Cottonwood community. She was the first female president of the Rotary Club and serves on the Cottonwood Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors. She is a board member of F.E.D., the Foundation for Economic Development. “We are working to inform residents how economic development can benefit everyone. The right companies will add wealth to our communities and promote values like open space, trails and affordable housing. Those kinds of things can happen with good planned growth--money coming from manufacturing or services--where the income actually comes from outside the Verde Valley,” Beach says. “Our goal is to recruit businesses that will be good fit for Cottonwood and bring good quality jobs with benefits and pay.”
Citing her own experience to emphasize the need for economic development, Beach says in 1974 she left the Verde Valley for 20 years because young people did not have opportunities to make a good living here. After getting her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Arizona State University, marrying and raising two daughters, she returned in ’94 and went to work for Phoenix Cement, now Salt River Materials Group. Her daughters have made her the proud grandmother of five, with the sixth due this week. She’d like to see ample economic opportunities for her grandchildren if they decide to stay in the Verde Valley after they grow up.
Using her own employer, Phoenix Cement and Salt River Materials Group, as an example of what successful businesses do to help communities, and why the area needs more of them, Beach said the company has given cash donations totaling more than $76,000 in the past year, in addition to outright donations of cement products for worthy municipal and community projects.
Beach has always felt that volunteerism was important. As a child, she participated in Girl Scouts, Rainbow Girls and Dollars for Scholars, a grass roots attempt to get scholarship money for local Mingus graduates to attend college.
Recently she served six years on the Verde Valley Concert Association board, a group that brings all types of world class entertainment to the Verde Valley. Beach says, “These cultural activities are important to economic development and prospective companies. Companies look at what’s available for their employees, and they know they will get better educated employees and people who will stay longer if there are diverse activities available.”
Beach estimates that she currently belongs to at least 14 different organizations. She’s an ambassador on the Chamber’s membership committee and a board member on the Yavapai County Community Foundation. She serves on the Marilyn Sunderman Foundation that provides scholarships to teachers and communities with the goal of fostering creativity for all ages. She serves on the Camp Verde Education Foundation, an endowment fund that provides grants to teachers for art and field trips.
Friends of Camp Verde, which began as Friends of Fort Verde, helps with activities that bring people to the town of Camp Verde. Beach and husband David are also members of the Old Town Association and Verde Historical Society. She’s a 35-year member of a philanthropic educational association for women, PEO Sisterhood, an organization that helps women of all ages attain secondary educations.
Beach sees the city of Cottonwood heading in a positive direction economically. “I see Cottonwood becoming what its general plan envisions. The whole Verde Valley is growing. Anyone who was here in the ‘50s has got to know that growth is a very positive thing. When the mines closed and people left, the economy was so depressed. As a child, I was aware of the sorrow of having buildings and houses boarded up. The opposite of that scenario is the vitality that comes with good planned growth. Economic growth is healthy and essential,” Beach emphasizes.
The biggest challenges are helping everyone understand that economic development does not just mean expansion and growth and explosion of population, but it means planning for things like open space, parks, trails, meeting rooms and activity centers. Beach believes that if a community stays small and doesn’t look outside its comfort level, positive attributes and amenities won’t happen.
Beach says she appreciates the City of Cottonwood’s contributions to economic development activities. The city’s bed tax helps pay for Chamber activities and staff. “These dollars assist with activities like Focus Future II, feasibility studies, like the one that determined whether the community was ready for conference center, the recent Verde Valley Forum on achieving a sustainable and diversified economy, and other valuable economic development activities,” Beach says.
If Beach could convince everyone in the community to do just one thing, it would be to vote. She also feels that it is important for community members to welcome future residents. “My family didn’t have the attitude when we moved here in 1959 that nobody else could move to this town,” she says. “We need to keep the history of the area in perspective. If someone moves here and wants to make a lot of changes three months later, and stop others from coming, I always wonder how those people would feel if my family had closed the doors in 1960.”
In addition to volunteering, Beach loves to read and travel around Arizona with husband Dave to see different parts of the state. Beach says, “Family is real important. I have three brothers and my mother is still living, so I try to spend time with family. I love to play with my grandchildren.”
Spotlight on Volunteers is written by Diane Joens on behalf of the Cottonwood City Council. Council members recognize the invaluable contributions volunteers make to the betterment of city government and the community. There are many opportunities to volunteer and make a positive difference. Council members encourage everyone to get involved. Volunteer today!