Child Crisis Arizona Celebrates 50 Years With $1 Million Lunch for Love

Child Crisis Arizona marked a major milestone October 1, welcoming more than 400 guests to its annual Lunch for Love at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and raising more than $1 million in one hour to support its prevention, intervention and wellness programs. The luncheon also officially launched the organization’s 50th anniversary celebration, which will continue through 2027 and recognize five decades of protecting children, strengthening families and adapting to the changing needs of communities across Arizona.

“This year’s luncheon is extra special because we are celebrating 50 years of protecting childhood,” said board chair Dino Camuñez. “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. We get to celebrate that milestone together.”

The anniversary celebration offered an opportunity to look back at the two organizations whose histories eventually came together to form Child Crisis Arizona. The story began in Phoenix in the 1970s, when pediatrician Dr. J. Kipp Charlton saw children arriving at what was then Maricopa County Hospital in circumstances no child should experience. He began asking where children could go when their parents were in crisis.

Together with Junior League of Phoenix member Barbie Perry and other community advocates, Charlton helped establish Crisis Nursery in 1976. Two cottages opened on Fillmore Street the following year, with enough space to care for just six children. Charlton served as the organization’s medical director and primary physician for nearly 20 years, donating more than 10,000 hours of his time.

A similar need was taking shape in the East Valley. In 1981, members of the Mahnah Club recognized the need for a place to help 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.

The two organizations ultimately merged in 2015, creating Child Crisis Arizona and bringing together decades of experience serving children and families.

“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 the people who helped establish 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 well beyond providing children with a safe place during moments of crisis. Over the past year, the organization served more than 23,000 individuals through prevention, intervention and wellness programming. Its services support people at many stages of life, including prenatal mothers and young children, 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?”

As the organization looks toward its next 50 years, Taj shared a vision for creating a more holistic system of wellness that spans every stage of life, from prenatal support through adulthood. The organization also plans to continue strengthening resources for families and helping young people who have experienced foster care transition into adulthood with greater stability and opportunity. 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,” Sarhangian said. “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.”

As Child Crisis Arizona begins its 50th anniversary year, the organization is carrying forward the same question that inspired its founders decades ago: What can we do? Today, the answer includes supporting thousands of children and families throughout Arizona and building resources designed to help prevent crises before they begin. For more behind this Frontdoor, visit Home | Child Crisis Arizona – Child Crisis.