The Fountain Hills Friends of the Library has been enriched the last six years by the participation and leadership of Cynthia Magazine.

Regretfully, Cynthia will be completing her second term on the Friends Board of Directors at the January, 2015 annual meeting. She will be missed!

In 2006, Ms. Magazine and her husband, Alan, decided to move from the Washington, D.C. to be close to her late mother, who lived in Prescott.

They also wanted to have an airport accessible nearby, and discovering Fountain Hills was as serendipitous as seeing a picture of our famous Fountain.

While having breakfast at Mimi’s on Shea in Scottsdale, Cynthia and Alan studied a builder’s publication on the various possibilities in the eastern communities of the Valley of the Sun.

The rest is history.

Through her early years and her career, Cynthia lived in a variety of locations in the continental United States and abroad. She was born in Manila, Philippines, but grew up in Berkeley, Calif., which was a sleepy town at that time.

She began her education in Berkeley, where she received her B.A. in anthropology. She went on to earn an MBA from Santa Clara University, Calif. and a certificate in social work.

Magazine began her career as an intake worker at a part-pay medical clinic in Berkeley and moved on to the Alameda County Welfare Department in the Aid to Disabled Program. After earning her MBA, she worked for five years for the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., as the administrator of the Electrical Systems Division.

When Cynthia moved to D.C. she first worked for the electric utility industry, but she had realized early on that her first love was in health care management. Fortunately, during her years in Washington, D.C., Cynthia was able to once again move back into the health care field.

For two years she was director of operations for a dental PPO; for eight subsequent years she worked in project management for Kaiser Permanente; and lastly she was responsible for certifying a workers’ compensation PPO in more than 20 states across the country for a subsidiary of United Health Care.

Cynthia is a veteran volunteer. She retired in 2000, and from 2001 to 2006 she volunteered full-time for Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia.

“I learned how to build a house!” she commented.

Magazine not only learned how to build a house, she also started a Habitat ReStore, the first in Northern Virginia.

These stores are non-profit home improvement and donation centers from which the “proceeds are used to build homes, community and hope around the world.”

There are several of these stores in and around the Phoenix area.

Two years after moving to Fountain Hills, Magazine was asked if she would be interested in serving on the Fountain Hills Library Association Board (now Fountain Hills Friends of the Library), and she jumped at the opportunity.

Books have always played an important in Cynthia’s life. She has been known to have seven books stacked on her bedside table, both fiction and non-fiction, reading several at a time.

Cynthia said she was impressed immediately by the library and its role in our community.

As president of FHFL, she has further realized how the Friends of the Library’s support enriches the library for the community.

The FHFL completely funds library programs such as the Summer Reading Program, the teenage programs, the Authors Series and the Front Porch Performances.

The Fountain Hills Friends of the Library’s supplemental financial support has been particularly vital for the library during the recent time of austerity, and will continue to be an important factor in the future as the role of the library changes.

Cynthia recognizes and greatly appreciates the foresight and investment of the original founders in the formation of the Library Association.

As a natural evolution, and with her management and leadership skills, Cynthia believes she has been able to bring additional structure, action and visibility to the board.

The one Friends’ goal Ms. Magazine would like to have achieved during her presidency was greater support by the community through the $15 Friends annual membership..A simple, easy way to say “thank you” and add support to the Friends’ commitment to enrich the library for the community (no further participation required).

November is membership month for 2015, a chance to get on board.

Ms. Magazine has loved being president of the Friends of the Library.

In her words, “The board is committed, active, engaged and hard-working; it has truly been an experience in teamwork.” She used her husband’s words when she said, “All I’ve had to do is ‘Make the train run on time!’”

Cynthia’s husband, Alan, was elected to the Fountain Hills Town Council in the August election.

Thanks to both of you for your able leadership in our community.