Meet Denny Brown of Scottsdale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Denny Brown.

Denny, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I spent the first 20 years of my working life in Omaha and then all over the United States and more. I taught school in Alexandria, Egypt and then entered the world of Professional Theatre. For years I traveled from theatre to theatre and from sound studio to sound stages. I did a lot of Voice over work and TV shows for kids in Omaha, but In the early 80’s I hit the road and ended up working with Don Ameche. After being on the road with Don, I ended up in L.A. where I started working behind the camera in the art department on major commercials and TV mini-series. A very exciting and exhausting time. Lots of moving around for a while and then I moved to Scottsdale. Film work was great until the writers strike in L.A. All of my film buddies were looking for work, then a call came in. A company was bringing the new NIssan to their Maricopa Test center. They needed logistic people to clean, fuel and safely move the vehicles. This was around 1989. I said we can do that. I took my film friends and worked the job, I should mention we worked with famous race car drivers like the Unsers, Dallenbachs and Hertas. The Ride and Drive industry took off. Our new company, ProFormance Driving Events introduced the Infiniti to the United States. The company was located at Firebird Raceway. I was back on the road, including working the Indy 500 twice and became the sales manager at Firebird. In 1993 after returning from Indy, I was in my favorite saloon after 9PM and ran into a lady I have met before. It was a beautiful July night. I asked if she would like to jump on the Harley and take a summer evening drive, we were married in November. We had kids. And now here,s this 50 year old guy getting a call, “Could you help us with the Hohokam PTA”? I spent 4 years as PTA President and then won in the Scottsdale Unified Governing Board election. That was just the beginning.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
This is an interesting transition. As mentioned before, I served on the SUSD Governing Board. In my time serving, education funding was a mess. Our schools were aging and enrollment was a challenge. We had to close a school which is a hardship for a neighborhood. I also discovered that about 25% of all valley students, including Scottsdale qualified for Free and Reduced lunch. This was a real eye opener.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
When my term ended at SUSD, I was introduced to Bill Murphey at the City of Scottsdale. He said he had a program he could use some help with. Back to School had been around for years serving about 400 students. Kids came through Vista del Camino for 3 days and got everything they needed to start the school year with pride. I said “Bill, I have about 6,000 students on Free and Reduced lunch. Can we step this up? That year we served almost 900 in 1 day at the Scottsdale Stadium with 150 volunteers. To this day that was my proudest moment. But that led to me serving 5 years on the Scottsdale Human Services Commission, a few years on the AZ Food Bank Network and now 8 years on the EVIT Foundation Board where I am now the Executive Director. Along with this, I am a fundraiser for Scottsdale Community Partners which is a 501c3 partner with the City of Scottsdale. SCP funds Back to School and many other Scottsdale programs including the Scottsdale Food Bank. I guess I should mention I am in the Scottsdale Historical Society Hall of Fame

Any big plans?
I plan on continuing to work with Scottsdale Community Partners and the EVIT Foundation until I drop. Both organization could use your financial help.

Pricing:

• Back to School students receive about $250 in goods
• The average EVIT Scholarship from the Foundation is $250
• 400 students per week receive food on the weekends from the SCP Healthy Packs program
• Donations to SCP, scottsdalecommunitypartners.org
• Donations to the EVIT Foundation, evitfoundation.org

Contact Info:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DennyDowntownBrown