Sometimes, or perhaps, always, great and far reaching human kindness starts on a smaller yet no less significant scale. In the case of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, it arguably might not exist but for it's Founder, Frank Shankwitz's experience growing up on Route 66 in Seligman, Arizona. By age 10, Shankwitz had spent years on the road, homeless, with his mother who had kidnapped him. The kindness and mentorship he received working as a dishwasher at Juan Delgadillo's Snow Cap Drive-In set him on a path of philanthropy and success in the air force, as an Arizona Highway Patrol motorcycle officer and homicide detective. Shankwitz has described Delgadillo, who passed in 2004, as a stand in father figure. In several interviews he has shared how Delgadillo taught him the then novel idea of "turning negatives into positives." When Shankwitz's mother abandoned him in Seligman at age 12, Delgadillo arranged for him to live with a local woman (whom he descri...
The La Posada Hotel on Route 66 in Winslow feels like an unexpected rustic lodge and oasis in Arizona's plateau highlands. The gardens are lush and the interior is strikingly beautiful. Though you're not at the Grand Canyon or Yosemite, it's no wonder you feel as though you might be; the hotel was designed by premier turn-of-the century female architect, Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter. Famous for her landmark buildings along the South Rim, Colter worked with the Santa Fe Railroad and Fred Harvey Company from 1905 to 1950. The Harvey family turned to her in the 1920s to design La Posada, last of the "Harvey Hotels" along the Santa Fe Railway line, which opened in 1930. The Harvey Hotels were famous for their exemplary food and service along the Santa Fe. After a fist fight broke out among all-male wait staff, Fred Harvey revolutionized waitressing by replacing them with a highly-trained, diligent and well-paid staff of young women who wore conse...