Sun City Summerlin Security Patrol Chief Darlene Vaturi
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SECURITY PATROL
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Security Patrol Honors 200 Club
The Sun City Summerlin Security Patrol celebrated its hard-working volunteers on Saturday, October 13, at Desert Vista during its annual 200 Club Dinner. The event, which this year touted a Western theme, recognizes volunteers who have completed 200 hours of service during the year. For the 2017-18 year, 153 volunteers were eligible for the ceremony, said Patrol Chief Darlene Vaturi, adding that currently the Patrol’s membership is 219. In the last year, those volunteers have logged a total of 88,714 service hours to Sun City.
In addition to the presentation of certificates commemorating the 200-hour milestone, the event honored longtime volunteers Sylvia and Walter LaMay for their 22 years each of active service to the Patrol. Security Patrol volunteers and their guests, along with members of Sun City Summerlin’s Board of Directors and Executive Director Mitzi Mills attended the event that was catered by SCSCAI’s Food & Beverage Department.
In addition to the presentation of certificates commemorating the 200-hour milestone, the event honored longtime volunteers Sylvia and Walter LaMay for their 22 years each of active service to the Patrol. Security Patrol volunteers and their guests, along with members of Sun City Summerlin’s Board of Directors and Executive Director Mitzi Mills attended the event that was catered by SCSCAI’s Food & Beverage Department.
Why I Joined Security Patrol
Patrol Photographer, Driver, Driver Trainer
Adrian Cole serves many roles on the Patrol, one of which is photographing community events.
Photo by Jeannette Carrillo/Link
BY ADRIAN COLE
December 10, 1948, we, the Cole family, made up of me, my parents, my two sisters and their nanny boarded the S.S. America in Southampton, England, for New York City. It was also my parent’s wedding anniversary.
The seven-day crossing was rough and we experienced 75-mile-per hour-plus winds. We were all sick, and when we landed in New York there was about 15 inches of snow on the ground. We didn’t expect this, especially for me in my school dress pants that were short.
We were met by an uncle who was crossing the Atlantic to the U.S. when WWII began. He had arranged for us to stay in a hotel with kitchen facilities. My mother took me with her to a local market for food and that was followed by a second trip that same day for more food. After a short period in the hotel near Central Park, my parents moved us to Queens in late December. One of my sisters and I went to a local school there. I don’t remember when, but my parents flew to Los Angeles, spent a very short time there, got back on a flight to New York and announced that we were moving to L.A. Around the first of February, the six of us got into a 1948 Dodge an took a 10-day day trip with one driver to L.A. After a few days in a motel in Hollywood, my parents found a house in West L.A., which they rented and we all moved in.
My mother’s sister and her family arrived a year or two later and they also moved to West LA. My father and my mother with her sister and her husband went looking for property, found a vacant lot in 1953 and built a triplex. We were downstairs, they were upstairs and there was an apartment built over the garage. Six of us downstairs and six upstairs.
In April 1955, I completed the requirements and I became a U.S. citizen.
Years passed by and I entered the University of California, Los Angeles. While there, I lettered twice for playing on the UCLA cricket team and I also joined the Hollywood Cricket Club. The club was founded in 1932 by C. Aubrey Smith and he was joined by many in the motion picture industry. For me, I was fortunate years later to meet Sir Aubrey’s wife and Boris Karloff. In May 1958, I graduated and I went to work with the Los Angeles County Auditor Department that performed audits of various county agencies. In September, I started work with a local CPA firm as a junior accountant and 40 years later I retired as a partner. Later, in 1958, I started my six years in the Army Reserve. In 1998, my wife and I moved to Sun City but more on that later.
During the 40 years with the CPA firm, I continued my cricket playing for about 25 years. It was a good time as I was able to play in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, England, Jamaica and Israel. In 1973, I was on the U.S. Cricket team to the Maccabiah Games in Israel, playing cricket. In 1983, I changed sports and took up lawn bowling. I participated in the game in Southern California until 1998 when we moved to Las Vegas. In 2000, I found that two retirement communities in St. George, Utah, had just built lawn bowling greens. I joined one of the clubs and then drove on weekends to lawn bowl there for five years. During this five-year period I also participated in the Huntsman Games in Utah. For lawn bowls I did play in the U.S. and Israel, and in 1985 I was on the U.S. Lawn Bowls team.
From about 1979, while on a trip as a scorer and assistant manager with a U.S. cricket team to an International Competition in England, I submitted my application for membership in the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) an organization that has been in existence for a couple hundred years with its founding in 1787. It is the organization for cricket. About six years later, my membership came through. And currently there is wait time of about 15 years. There is a fixed membership of 18,000 and 5,000 associate members. You get in when someone dies or resigns. Around the same time, I was appointed to the Advisory Board of the C.C. Morris Cricket Library Association in Haverford College in Haverford, Penn.
And now back to July 1998.
My wife and I moved to Sun City Summerlin. For nine and a half years I worked part time with a local CPA firm preparing income tax returns. I guess I just wanted to help prepare income tax returns especially since I had the California tax background. Would I do it again? No.
When I retired from that job I joined the Sun City Security Patrol in 2007. With the Security Patrol I am a driver, a driver trainer and the photographer. I joined as I wanted to be active in the community. It also provided me with the opportunity to meet other Sun City residents. We did have a couple who we met while on a Travel Club trip to New Orleans. They were both in the Security Patrol and we had some interesting discussions about the Patrol. I am also a member of the Travel Club, the Computer Club and the Photography Club.
Being a driver trainer has given me the opportunity to meet new residents who are now new members of the Security Patrol. It also allows me to introduce them to Sun City, its 73 miles of roads and about 250 different street names.
A few years ago, on my regular driving shift, I came across a resident whose golf cart broke down and she was stranded. She was on her way home from the Sun Shadows pool and it was about 110 degrees out. She had no cell phone or water. I got permission to put her in my car with the air conditioning on until the golf cart repair people arrived. At least she had that phone number and I was able to get them to come to her aid. It took them about 20 minutes to come that short distance from Rampart and Del Webb Boulevard.
There also was another incident where two cars were sent to an accident with a golf cart and a car at Sundial and Del Webb. Metro was there and we were asked to assist by directing traffic. This was not easy because of where the two vehicles met in the middle of the intersection.
I plan to stay with the Security Patrol for as long as I am able to drive.
December 10, 1948, we, the Cole family, made up of me, my parents, my two sisters and their nanny boarded the S.S. America in Southampton, England, for New York City. It was also my parent’s wedding anniversary.
The seven-day crossing was rough and we experienced 75-mile-per hour-plus winds. We were all sick, and when we landed in New York there was about 15 inches of snow on the ground. We didn’t expect this, especially for me in my school dress pants that were short.
We were met by an uncle who was crossing the Atlantic to the U.S. when WWII began. He had arranged for us to stay in a hotel with kitchen facilities. My mother took me with her to a local market for food and that was followed by a second trip that same day for more food. After a short period in the hotel near Central Park, my parents moved us to Queens in late December. One of my sisters and I went to a local school there. I don’t remember when, but my parents flew to Los Angeles, spent a very short time there, got back on a flight to New York and announced that we were moving to L.A. Around the first of February, the six of us got into a 1948 Dodge an took a 10-day day trip with one driver to L.A. After a few days in a motel in Hollywood, my parents found a house in West L.A., which they rented and we all moved in.
My mother’s sister and her family arrived a year or two later and they also moved to West LA. My father and my mother with her sister and her husband went looking for property, found a vacant lot in 1953 and built a triplex. We were downstairs, they were upstairs and there was an apartment built over the garage. Six of us downstairs and six upstairs.
In April 1955, I completed the requirements and I became a U.S. citizen.
Years passed by and I entered the University of California, Los Angeles. While there, I lettered twice for playing on the UCLA cricket team and I also joined the Hollywood Cricket Club. The club was founded in 1932 by C. Aubrey Smith and he was joined by many in the motion picture industry. For me, I was fortunate years later to meet Sir Aubrey’s wife and Boris Karloff. In May 1958, I graduated and I went to work with the Los Angeles County Auditor Department that performed audits of various county agencies. In September, I started work with a local CPA firm as a junior accountant and 40 years later I retired as a partner. Later, in 1958, I started my six years in the Army Reserve. In 1998, my wife and I moved to Sun City but more on that later.
During the 40 years with the CPA firm, I continued my cricket playing for about 25 years. It was a good time as I was able to play in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, England, Jamaica and Israel. In 1973, I was on the U.S. Cricket team to the Maccabiah Games in Israel, playing cricket. In 1983, I changed sports and took up lawn bowling. I participated in the game in Southern California until 1998 when we moved to Las Vegas. In 2000, I found that two retirement communities in St. George, Utah, had just built lawn bowling greens. I joined one of the clubs and then drove on weekends to lawn bowl there for five years. During this five-year period I also participated in the Huntsman Games in Utah. For lawn bowls I did play in the U.S. and Israel, and in 1985 I was on the U.S. Lawn Bowls team.
From about 1979, while on a trip as a scorer and assistant manager with a U.S. cricket team to an International Competition in England, I submitted my application for membership in the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) an organization that has been in existence for a couple hundred years with its founding in 1787. It is the organization for cricket. About six years later, my membership came through. And currently there is wait time of about 15 years. There is a fixed membership of 18,000 and 5,000 associate members. You get in when someone dies or resigns. Around the same time, I was appointed to the Advisory Board of the C.C. Morris Cricket Library Association in Haverford College in Haverford, Penn.
And now back to July 1998.
My wife and I moved to Sun City Summerlin. For nine and a half years I worked part time with a local CPA firm preparing income tax returns. I guess I just wanted to help prepare income tax returns especially since I had the California tax background. Would I do it again? No.
When I retired from that job I joined the Sun City Security Patrol in 2007. With the Security Patrol I am a driver, a driver trainer and the photographer. I joined as I wanted to be active in the community. It also provided me with the opportunity to meet other Sun City residents. We did have a couple who we met while on a Travel Club trip to New Orleans. They were both in the Security Patrol and we had some interesting discussions about the Patrol. I am also a member of the Travel Club, the Computer Club and the Photography Club.
Being a driver trainer has given me the opportunity to meet new residents who are now new members of the Security Patrol. It also allows me to introduce them to Sun City, its 73 miles of roads and about 250 different street names.
A few years ago, on my regular driving shift, I came across a resident whose golf cart broke down and she was stranded. She was on her way home from the Sun Shadows pool and it was about 110 degrees out. She had no cell phone or water. I got permission to put her in my car with the air conditioning on until the golf cart repair people arrived. At least she had that phone number and I was able to get them to come to her aid. It took them about 20 minutes to come that short distance from Rampart and Del Webb Boulevard.
There also was another incident where two cars were sent to an accident with a golf cart and a car at Sundial and Del Webb. Metro was there and we were asked to assist by directing traffic. This was not easy because of where the two vehicles met in the middle of the intersection.
I plan to stay with the Security Patrol for as long as I am able to drive.
Why I Joined Security Patrol
Getting to Know Residents, Streets, Community an Added Bonus
Hilda and Allyn Ayotte learned about Security Patrol when they attended Sun City's classic car show. Photo by DJ Minella/Link
BY HILDA AND ALLYN AYOTTE, Drivers
Before we moved to Sun City Summerlin, part of our research included the overall security of the community. We learned of Sun City Summerlin’s long-standing reputation for safety and security, which became a primary consideration for our move here. It wasn’t an overriding factor, but security was very important to us, especially considering that we weren’t getting any younger.
We had no knowledge of the Security Patrol until we had settled in and begun to get to know the neighborhood. A year into our move to Sun City, we were introduced to a Security Patrol recruiter at a car show held at the Mountain Shadows Community Center. We decided that as long as we lived here, we should join up and become a part of our own security equation. We signed on, went through a number of training sessions and now serve as a husband/wife driving team, patrolling regular, rotating shifts of all the neighborhoods. What a way to get to know and participate in the community!
Volunteering with the Sun City Security Patrol has been a rewarding experience, far beyond the satisfaction of knowing that we were contributing to our own well-being. Getting to know new people, attending Security Patrol events and getting to understand the 73 miles of roads in Sun City, are welcome side benefits.
However, in all of this, we have come to understand that our training has made us much more aware of our surroundings, particularly in our own neighborhood. We have used our knowledge and training to prompt us to ring neighbors’ door bells when we haven’t seen any activity for a few days and, on numerous occasions, to contact neighbors when we saw garage doors open into the night. In the overall scheme of things, these are not earth-shattering events, but they do give us a sense of satisfaction and well-being, knowing that there are about 225 like-minded Security Patrol volunteers watching out for us 24/7, as well.
Before we moved to Sun City Summerlin, part of our research included the overall security of the community. We learned of Sun City Summerlin’s long-standing reputation for safety and security, which became a primary consideration for our move here. It wasn’t an overriding factor, but security was very important to us, especially considering that we weren’t getting any younger.
We had no knowledge of the Security Patrol until we had settled in and begun to get to know the neighborhood. A year into our move to Sun City, we were introduced to a Security Patrol recruiter at a car show held at the Mountain Shadows Community Center. We decided that as long as we lived here, we should join up and become a part of our own security equation. We signed on, went through a number of training sessions and now serve as a husband/wife driving team, patrolling regular, rotating shifts of all the neighborhoods. What a way to get to know and participate in the community!
Volunteering with the Sun City Security Patrol has been a rewarding experience, far beyond the satisfaction of knowing that we were contributing to our own well-being. Getting to know new people, attending Security Patrol events and getting to understand the 73 miles of roads in Sun City, are welcome side benefits.
However, in all of this, we have come to understand that our training has made us much more aware of our surroundings, particularly in our own neighborhood. We have used our knowledge and training to prompt us to ring neighbors’ door bells when we haven’t seen any activity for a few days and, on numerous occasions, to contact neighbors when we saw garage doors open into the night. In the overall scheme of things, these are not earth-shattering events, but they do give us a sense of satisfaction and well-being, knowing that there are about 225 like-minded Security Patrol volunteers watching out for us 24/7, as well.
Why I Joined Security Patrol
Proud to Share My First-Responder Skills
Photo by DJ Minella/Link
BY ERIK E. BRAUN, Driver
I am coming up on my first full year of residence and well into the second year of my working in Security Patrol as a driver (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 00:00-4:00 shifts).
I am currently a driver and have volunteered to be part of recruiting and to become the Neighborhood Watch liaison here in Sun City Summerlin.
I am proud to have served in and finished a career with the U.S. Army as a combat medic (paramedic). Looking back, I can still remember leaving for basic that fateful day in June 1988.
…You can discharge the boy from the military but you can’t discharge the military from the boy. It is very tough to break that kind of bonding and I, for one, have always looked forward to being part of it; Military, Legion, V.F.W.
What do you find most enjoyable about the Patrol?
Absolutely without a doubt, the newfound friendships and helping my fellow neighbors.
After returning from my tour of Iraq, yes, “of,” since I drove as part of a convoy escort I can tell you I believe every single inch of Iraqi roads were driven by myself over the 2005 and 2006 time frame. Anyway, after returning I rejoined the activities of my American Legion and served as commander for a year. I was then asked to be the chaplain, became ordained and served another eight years as part of the executive board. There have been many good memories; dedications, Veteran’s Day presentations, parades, in addition to those sad ones, I have been in charge of funerals, for our departed brothers and sisters and our yearly 12 cemetery Memorial Day services. However, as it’s said, I wouldn’t trade it for …
Personal Experience as a Patrol Volunteer
At the large garage sale at Mountain Shadows, a seller was overcome with the heat and my medical training was called upon to be a first-responder and call for the ambulance to provide further care and transport to the local hospital.
I’ve helped out fellow co-workers day in and day out by always being at the ready during any of my shifts.
Photo by DJ Minella/Link
Why I Joined Security Patrol
To Give Back to the Community I Am A Part Of
John Lytle and his wife, Cathy, are proud members of Sun City's volunteer security patrol. Photo by DJ Minella/Link.
By JOHN AND CATHY LYTLE, Drivers
One evening my wife and I were patrolling together when we received a call from our dispatcher who had received a call from a resident who suspected someone was in her yard and possibly trying to break into her house. It was about 10 p.m. and we immediately went to the residence, which backed up to Rampart Boulevard. We did not see any activity. At the door, I asked the resident if I might go into her backyard to make sure all was clear and, of course, she said “Yes, please do!” I immediately saw/heard the problem as it was the 4th of July and fireworks were being set off across the street in another subdivision. The sound, being strange, had scared the resident as she lived alone. Once she came to the patio and saw for herself she was embarrassed. I gently assured her that the property was safe and to feel free to contact us if she ever felt uneasy again.
Many who live in our community are getting along in age, are living alone and have these types of experiences. This is a lot of what we do at Security Patrol – We are not policemen, but “Neighbors helping Neighbors!”
It was very gratifying to see the caller’s relief and know we had made a difference.
One evening my wife and I were patrolling together when we received a call from our dispatcher who had received a call from a resident who suspected someone was in her yard and possibly trying to break into her house. It was about 10 p.m. and we immediately went to the residence, which backed up to Rampart Boulevard. We did not see any activity. At the door, I asked the resident if I might go into her backyard to make sure all was clear and, of course, she said “Yes, please do!” I immediately saw/heard the problem as it was the 4th of July and fireworks were being set off across the street in another subdivision. The sound, being strange, had scared the resident as she lived alone. Once she came to the patio and saw for herself she was embarrassed. I gently assured her that the property was safe and to feel free to contact us if she ever felt uneasy again.
Many who live in our community are getting along in age, are living alone and have these types of experiences. This is a lot of what we do at Security Patrol – We are not policemen, but “Neighbors helping Neighbors!”
It was very gratifying to see the caller’s relief and know we had made a difference.
Security Patrol is always looking for volunteers. If you would like to join a group of residents who work toward making Sun City safer, contact headquarters at 702-254-2303.
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