Salt River Community Recreational Services employees Diedre Goodluck and Janyse Collins-Salinas are leaving the department after devoting years of service to the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. The two said their farewells on Friday, November 5, at the CRS Social Division’s Mini Multi, where a number of fellow employees, parents and friends came to wish them well and good luck on their next journey. 

Goodluck started working for the SRPMIC as a teacher’s aide at the Early Childhood Education Center 19 years ago. Now, just short of her 20-year mark, she decided to leave to pursue her education in public communications and then earn her master’s degree in organizational leadership at Northern Arizona University. 

Goodluck worked with the ECEC for five years before switching over to Community Recreational Services.

“At ECEC I worked with a specific age group, and here [at Recreation] I worked with kindergarten to high school students,” said Goodluck about the differences between working at both places. “But it was neat because a lot of the kids I worked with at ECEC came here and I got to see them grow up. Now some of them are adults and have babies of their own, and some have kids who come to the program today.”

Goodluck said she will miss working with all the students; in particular she enjoyed seeing all the Girl Scouts go through that program. She said she will keep many memories with her, including working with Vicki Andrews and Randy Gill, having Day Camp lunches at the old Day School building, driving the big vans, and the fun she had each year at the Summer Day Camps. 

“I want to say thank you to the families and participants and the SRPMIC, and it’s been an honor working with the youth,” said Goodluck. “I always call them the Community’s most precious members. I do believe that, and it’s been a great experience.”

SRPMIC member Janyse Collins-Salinas has worked for the Community for four years. She started out as a temporary worker and later became a permanent employee when a position opened up. 

“I was very excited and very motivated to teach the kids what I learned throughout school,” said Collins-Salinas. “And I was able to do that through some special-interest classes and my groups that I got to lead with the program. So, my experience has just been a blessing and I’m just very grateful to be able to work with our Community youth.”

Collins-Salinas plans on working toward providing the Community with fresh food through gardening, something she picked up working at CRS and with the Cultural Resources Department. Her passion is health and wellness, and her goal is to get back to the old ways of the O’odham through planting and growing traditional foods. 

“I want to thank all the kids. A lot of times leaders are here to teach them, but it ends up that they teach us a lot of things we thought we knew but we didn’t until they come into our lives and kind of make us think differently,” said Collins-Salinas. “I just want to thank all the kids I was able to work with and I am grateful for that opportunity to serve our Community.”