The Rotary Club of Sedona honored Eric Wyles, co-founder and executive director of Low-Income Student Aid, with its annual Make-A-Difference Award and a $1,000 honorarium, on Aug. 5 at the Sedona Arts Center. The vote was unanimous and Wyles donated the funds to his Cornville-based nonprofit, which has been providing direct aid to students from working-class families in the Verde Valley since 2017.
“This year’s selection is the result of [Wyles’] leadership of [LISA] since its inception … and the expansion of the program to West Sedona School in January, 2024,” Rotary Club of Sedona Charitable Fund President Jean Barton wrote in the July 24 announcement. “Your joy helping children in need, your collaboration with our public schools and teachers, and the targeted, direct assistance to what the family needs, is a model that strengthens the entire community. Sedona and the entire Verde Valley are better places to live, work, and raise a family thanks to your leadership.”
Rotary has presented this award for the past nine years.
“We had very humble beginnings,” Wyles said. “About half the money came right here from Sedona, different contractors. I know I went out and knocked on their doors. … So we started as a pilot program with $7,230. The first year, we gave out about $3,000 [in] aid requests, we helped 172 kids. Second year, very modest budget, we helped about 90 kids. … Then came the pandemic.”
Wyles attributed a $5,000 grant from the Arizona Community Foundation in 2020 as “what spring boarded LISA,” and added that he sees a similar drive in Rotary’s fundraising push to raise $105,000 to support the Sedona-Oak Creek School District’s Wildcat Extended Day program. Barton announced that Rotary still has “$12,000 to go to reach our goal.”
“We opened our request forms on July 14 of this year, request number 90 just came across the board,” Wyles said. “A year ago, it took until November to get to 90. Guys, we’re in the eye of the storm and we feel so blessed because our budgets have gone from $3,000 a year to this year’s projected budget [of] $210,000, and it’s because of giving folks just like you.”
Families or community members submit direct aid requests to LISA for anything from school clothes, graduation or prom to even a bed to sleep on to a school’s LISA committee who votes on the requests approval.
As of July 1, LISA added support for the Clarkdale-Jerome School District, and currently provides direct aid to the students in Sedona-Oak Creek, Cottonwood-Oak Creek and Mingus Union High school districts. Wyles’ subsequently stated that by 2030 he would like to see LISA expand to all public school districts across the Verde Valley — however Wyles said there is no timeline for further expansion.
“As we’ve gotten bigger, we’re going to have some expenses,” Wyles said. “We have marketing expenses now. We have bookkeeping expenses now, and it’s common, but [with] our overhead over 92 cents of every dollar still ends up in the kids’ hands.”
In June, LISA also added its first employee, Kaitlyn Suggs, who works about 15 hours a week as the organization’s operations administrator, joining a cadre of over 50 volunteers across all the schools where LISA operates.
“Kaitlyn has been living in the Verde Valley for the past decade and has taught second through fifth grade in the Verde Valley,” the LISA’s website states. “After teaching for seven years and earning her master’s in educational administration, she went on to be the site coordinator at [Cottonwood Community School] for their 21st Century After School Clubs. She is excited to be working with LISA and helping us grow.”
LISA is also seeking a new volunteer treasurer for its board to succeed Wyles who is currently serving in that role as the interim. Learn more on LISA’s website azlisa.org.
“One of the trends we’re seeing currently with our aid request is a lot of requests from families needing help with school fees,” Wyles said. “Everybody thinks public schools are free, but they’re not. If a student wants to play a sport in [COCSD] that costs $60 per person per … we have helped with registration fees, dual enrollment fees, AP course fees at the [SOCSD], the needs just keep growing,” Wyles said.
“The joy is that LISA’s needed, the sadness too [is] that LISA’s needed,” Wyles said.
Rotary member Gary Karademos was also presented with the 2025 Silent Rotarian Award. The award is given annually to those members who “seek neither recognition nor reward for activities on behalf of the club and the community,” the award reads.
Previous winners include Dave Young in 2024, Ray Harris in 2023, Dick Youngberg in 2022, James Sebert in 2021 and John Terhune in 2019.
