More than 10,000 people are expected to take to parks, paths, trails and Tucson’s downtown as part of Beyond on Saturday.
The event, now in its fourth year, spans 18 locations from the Tortolita Mountains in Marana and Saguaro National Park West to Colossal Cave Mountain Park in Vail. It includes hikes, walks and bike rides in addition to dance, fitness demonstrations and children’s activities.
“I love that this is a community that looks forward and looks beyond,” said Pam Sutherland, who plans to explore the Tortolitas for the first time Saturday morning on a guided hike.
She’ll then return to her home in Tucson’s downtown for Beyond’s main event, which spans Armory Park and Children’s Museum Tucson.
While Sutherland tries something new every year, the main event has become a tradition for her — drawing people of all ages and from all walks of life to dance, Zumba and play in the sunshine.
On the shooting’s first anniversary, Sutherland and Marvin Shaver created a guided art walk as one of Beyond’s activities to reveal some of the creative spirit throughout downtown.
Last year she hiked from the Gabe Zimmerman Memorial Trailhead.
“The Beyond event has really spoken to me. It’s been a way of expressing life after such a tragedy and embracing the good things life has to offer,” said Sutherland, who had known Gabrielle Giffords before she ran for the U.S. Congress.
“The shooting was really heartbreaking,” said Sutherland, who also knew Gabe Zimmerman’s mother.
At 1 p.m. Saturday on the Armory Park main stage, Chezale Rodriguez will lead a refresher for the “Overcomer” flash mob dance routine that was such a hit last year.
Rodriguez and friend Uzo Nwankpa choreographed Mandisa’s inspiring song. Dozens of people learned the moves at workshops or by watching an instructional video on YouTube.
As of Tuesday, the video had gotten more than 13,000 hits.
Find the video at facebook.com/beyond.tucson
“I really felt a sense of
community in doing that,” said Rodriguez. “Everybody’s spirits were very uplifted.”
David Higuera helped with the planning of the first Beyond. “I was friends with Gabe Zimmerman and got to know his dad after the tragedy,” said Higuera, who had worked next to Giffords’ congressional office.
Since then, Higuera has taken his son to the Valley of the Moon and on various hikes as part of Beyond. This year he plans to take the boy, now 6, to Armory Park.
While too young to understand the deeper aspects of the event, Higuera said,“I think he has a sense that it’s something unusual, that there are so many people and so many things going on ... He’s aware that its not a typical Saturday.”
Beyond will always remind people who experienced the tragedy how the community responded, he said. For himself, Beyond is a reminder of the Zimmerman family’s strength.
Beyond is also growing as an event, he said, “that people in Tucson do at the start of the new year.
