ACTion Hero: Anne Marie Flores

The kids of Morrison Creek Estates now have a safe, fun place to play, thanks to the vision and  leadership of ACT board member Anne Marie Flores.

On September 22, Anne Marie oversaw a crew of nearly one hundred volunteers as a year’s worth of planning and old-fashioned heart and soul came to fruition. The playground was built in a once-empty lot that had maimed the northern tip of the Phoenix Park housing development off of Franklin Boulevard.

Anne Marie pulled together and coordinated several volunteer groups in order to raise the playground in a single day.  Through her leadership, The Home Depot donated the slides, swings and other playground equipment, as well as an army of manual laborers, and Albertson’s and Sheraton Hotels also pitched in to make this long-standing dream a reality.

Born in Scotland to Air Force parents, Anne Marie first came to the U.S. and California in 1972 when she was 10 years old.  She’s been here ever since.  She became involved in ACT during its earliest years of operation, concerned about the lack of after-school programming available to her daughter.  Through the years, she has been involved in various projects, including code enforcement work and ACT’s Parent-Teacher Home Visit Project.

ACT provided Anne Marie with plenty of material for her graduate studies, and she now holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Administration from California State University, Sacramento.

The playground at Morrison Creek provides tangible evidence of Anne Marie’s leadership skills.  The need for a place where kids could play first came to her attention at a monthly Safety and Security meeting at Phoenix Park.  She researched solutions online and discovered Kaboom.org, which sponsors playground projects.  But Kaboom couldn’t tie up all the loose ends.  Anne Marie had to write two grants in order to find funding for her playground, including a $5,000 grant from California’s  First 5 Commission.

Once the project was underway, Anne Marie included 50 area kids in designing the playground.  She coordinated area residents to chair various committees aimed at making “Build Day” run smoothly, from turnout committees to food committees, and they all participated in weekly conference calls with Kaboom.org.
Anne Marie looks forward to sharing ACT’s model of leadership development with others as new projects arise. “Anything we dream can become reality,” she says.  “Everybody has the opportunity to make change.” 
The kids in her neighborhood would agree.