April 14, 2018: The Vista del Rio Residents’ Association (RA) has provided an unsolicited $2,000 grant to support Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s education programs for children and adults. Vista del Rio RA began partnering with Old Pueblo in 2007 after the Tohono O’odham Nation provided the RA with an Indian Gaming grant to help conserve, protect, and educate the public about the ancient Hohokam Indian village archaeological site in the City of Tucson’s Vista del Rio Cultural Resource Park (7575 E. Desert Arbors Street, Tucson). This productive partnership has provided support for Old Pueblo to offer several archaeology education programs for children in the park as well as guided tours of the site for children and adults. As a result of its efforts to protect and enhance the park’s cultural and natural resources, Vista del Rio RA has received the Governor’s Heritage Preservation Honor Award and the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission Historic Preservation Award, and has won the Tohono Chul and Arizona Department of Water Resources Xeriscape Contest.
Old Pueblo will utilize Vista del Rio RA’s 2018 grant primarily to provide classroom scholarships to southern Arizona schools whose student populations would otherwise not be able to afford the costs of Old Pueblo’s educational field trips and classroom outreach programs. Old Pueblo’s next public tour of the Vista del Rio Cultural Resource Park archaeological site (which was inhabited by the Hohokam between AD 1000 and 1150) is scheduled for Saturday March 2, 2019, as a special free event celebrating Arizona Archaeology and Heritage Awareness Month. For more information about the Vista del Rio Residents’ Association and the archaeological site visit https://vistadelriora.wordpress.com/neighborhood-resources/vista-del-rio-cultural-resource-park/.
