Child Crisis Arizona Raises More Than $1 Million During 2026 Lunch for Love; Launches Milestone 50th Anniversary Celebration

(PHOENIX – Oct. 2, 2026) – Child Crisis Arizona welcomed more than 400 guests to its annual Lunch for Love fundraising event on Thursday, Oct. 1, at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, raising more than $1 million to support the organization’s prevention, intervention and wellness programs in just one hour. The event also served as the official launch pad for Child Crisis Arizona’s 50th anniversary celebration, which will continue through 2027 and honor five decades of protecting children, strengthening families and evolving to meet the changing needs of communities across Arizona.

“This year’s luncheon is extra special because we are celebrating 50 years of protecting childhood,” said Child Crisis Arizona board chair Dino Camuñez as he welcomed the crowd. “Fifty years of showing up for children and families across Arizona. Fifty years of believing that every child deserves safety, stability and the chance to thrive. And today, we get to celebrate that milestone together.”

In recognition of the milestone, the program looked back at the two organizations whose separate histories would eventually come together to form Child Crisis Arizona.

The story began in Phoenix, where pediatrician Dr. J. Kipp Charlton saw children arriving at what was then Maricopa County Hospital in circumstances no child should experience and began asking where they could go when their parents were in crisis. Together with Junior League of Phoenix member Barbie Perry and other community advocates, Charlton helped officially establish Crisis Nursery in 1976, and opened two cottages on Fillmore Street in 1977 with space to care for just six children. Charlton served as its medical director and primary physician for nearly 20 years, donating more than 10,000 hours of his time.

Then in 1981 in the East Valley, members of the Mahnah Club recognized a similar need for children experiencing abuse, neglect or displacement. After initially being dismissed when they approached the Mesa City Council, the women gathered data documenting the growing need and returned with the evidence to make their case. Child Crisis Center subsequently opened in a donated building in Mesa with seven shelter beds, eventually expanding as demand for its services grew.

The two organizations would ultimately merge in 2015, creating Child Crisis Arizona and bringing together decades of experience serving children and families under one organization.

“A vision that began with a handful of determined women and seven beds has grown into an organization serving thousands of children and families across Arizona,” said Susan Backus, a member of the Mahnah Club of the East Valley who shared the Child Crisis Center story during the luncheon. “That growth didn’t happen because the need disappeared. It happened because people continued to see the need and continued to say, ‘We can do something about this.’”

Paul Charlton, son of the late Dr. J. Kipp Charlton, also took the stage to share his family’s connection to Crisis Nursery and the legacy of those who helped build the organization.

“Fifty years ago, a handful of people asked, ‘What can we do?’” said Charlton. “Five decades later, Child Crisis Arizona is still answering that question. And I hope we never stop asking it. Because when a child needs help, our community should be there.”

Today, Child Crisis Arizona’s work extends far beyond providing children a safe place during moments of crisis. In the past year alone, the organization served more than 23,000 individuals through prevention, intervention and wellness programming, with wraparound services supporting everyone from prenatal mothers and young children to foster and adoptive families, kinship caregivers, young adults transitioning from foster care and adults with developmental disabilities.

“Over 50 years, we have learned that protecting children means more than being there when something goes wrong,” said Child Crisis Arizona chief executive officer Torrie A. Taj. “It means asking what we can do earlier. What can we do differently? What does a family need to feel safe, healthy, connected and hopeful?”

Taj also shared the organization’s vision for the next 50 years, including creating a holistic system of wellness spanning every stage of life, from prenatal support through adulthood, while continuing to strengthen resources for families and helping young people who have experienced foster care transition into adulthood with greater stability and opportunity.

“Hope is not something we simply talk about. Hope is something we build,” said Taj. “Through a community that refuses to let children and families face difficult moments alone.”

Former Child Crisis Arizona Board Chair and longtime supporter Byron Sarhangian closed the program with an appeal to help carry that work into the organization’s next 50 years, “If we truly want to change lives, we also have to work to prevent crisis from happening in the first place, said Sarhangian. “We have to strengthen families. We have to give children a strong start through early education. We have to make sure families have the resources, guidance and support they need. That is how we begin to break cycles of abuse, neglect and poverty.”

Lunch for Love was made possible through the generous support of The Bidstrup Gift Fund, Lerner & Rowe Gives Back, JARS, General Dynamics, Sunflower Bank and Wilde Wealth Management, among others.

For more information, visit www.childcrisisaz.org.

About Child Crisis Arizona

Since 1976, Child Crisis Arizona has served vulnerable children and families in Arizona and is committed to preventing child abuse and neglect through education and intervention. Child Crisis Arizona offers emergency shelter and residential care for children and youth from birth to 21 and offers foster care and adoption services, early education as well communitywide parenting classes, workshops, support groups and much more. Child Crisis Arizona has positively impacted over 200,000 children and families since its inception. For more information, visit www.childcrisisaz.org.