Guests - Pamela Neal, James Rogers, Holly Swenson, Kelly Freeman-Evans
Pam Neal: Chairing the 2026 Heart and Stroke Ball
After experiencing temperatures reaching 100 degrees over the weekend, Kathleen Winn welcomed Pam Neal to the studio. Pam, who moved to Tucson in 1991 with her husband, a former Air Force serviceman, is now chairing the 2026 Heart and Stroke Ball for the Southern Arizona American Heart Association.
The event, aptly named "Rubies and Boots," will be an upscale Western bougie affair scheduled for February 7, 2026, at Westin La Paloma. Pam's journey to this role began after a personal tragedy when her husband passed away from a widowmaker heart attack in March 2024.
"After my husband passed away of a widowmaker in March of 2024, I decided very passionately as a mission with God that it was time to serve the American Heart Association," Pam explained. Her husband had suffered from heart attacks and undergone procedures including stents and bypass surgery throughout their marriage, but being a private person, he had preferred that she not get involved with the organization.
Two months after his passing, Pam reached out to the American Heart Association. After multiple meetings and persistent requests from the organization, she agreed to chair the 2026 Heart Ball. Though initially hesitant about taking on such a significant responsibility, she embraced the challenge with the support of the Heart Ball team.
Pam's current mission extends beyond organizing the Ball. She's focused on bringing CPR kits to Southern Arizona schools. Currently, only 6% of the 491 schools in Southern Arizona (including Tucson, Yuma, Benson, and surrounding communities) have CPR equipment, leaving 460 schools in need.
"We are raising money to purchase those CPR kits," Pam stated. "We will personally go out. We will train the educators to have those kits on the sports fields. These children will then take that education, bring it home to their families so they will be able to save their family members before emergency personnel can get there."
Each CPR kit costs $7,500, and the goal for this year's fundraising is $2 million. Those interested in participating can reach Pam through the American Heart Association, Southern Arizona, by phone at 520-419-1489, or via email at Pneel1979@outlook.com.
The 2026 Heart Ball is still in its planning stages, but Pam revealed they're working on securing a country western singer or band, with auction items being collected and Madison Ramirez with "You Can Do It Auctions" potentially serving as auctioneer. Tana and Tyler, a husband and wife team from Long Royalty, will host the event.
Interestingly, Kathleen and Pam discovered a personal connection during the interview. Pam's late husband, Daniel, rode motorcycles with Mike Proctor, Kathleen's former husband who was a Tucson police officer, and another friend named Stan Tebow. All three men are now "in heaven together, riding motorcycles," as Pam put it, with both Stan and Daniel having suffered from heart issues.
James Rogers: Election Integrity Win for Arizona
Kathleen Winn welcomed James Rogers, senior counsel at America First Legal Foundation, to discuss a significant legal victory for election integrity in Arizona.
America First Legal (AFL) filed a lawsuit on behalf of EasyAZ.org and Yvonne Cahill against all 15 county recorders in Arizona, seeking to enforce verification of citizenship for voters. Arizona has a unique system requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote for state and local elections, though federal law mandates that the state accept the federal election form for federal elections without requiring citizenship proof.
"Because of that, we know exactly how many registered voters in Arizona have not provided proof of citizenship. And right now it's about 50,000," Rogers explained. "These are voters who are allowed to vote for the House, for the Senate, for President, but they've never provided proof of citizenship."
A 2022 Arizona law requires county recorders to check monthly into these individuals' backgrounds to verify citizenship. However, Rogers noted that recorders lacked access to good resources to accomplish this. AFL identified a federal law from 1996 that requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to answer inquiries from state and local officials about individuals' citizenship status for lawful purposes.
Last summer, AFL sent letters to all 15 county recorders requesting they invoke this law to verify citizenship of registered voters who hadn't provided proof. After receiving no substantial response, AFL filed a lawsuit. Initially, Yavapai and Mohave County recorders settled and submitted requests to DHS, though the Biden administration reportedly did not respond to these inquiries.
The situation changed following presidential action. "In the last month of office, on January 20th, [President Biden] issued an executive order requiring DHS to start following this law and to start answering requests," Rogers said. "Then last month, Trump issued an executive order about fixing election issues. And he also once again said that this law needs to be followed and DHS needs to start answering these requests."
Following these developments, the remaining 13 county recorders agreed to settle the lawsuit and submitted requests to DHS to begin working with them on citizenship verification.
"We're really excited because that means that these 50,000 people, their citizenship can be verified," Rogers said. "Probably some of them will end up being citizens, which is great because that means that those people will now be able to vote full ballot... And any foreigner who's registered to vote, and we know that this does happen... we'll be able to find those people more easily and make sure they're not on the voting rolls anymore."
Rogers also discussed another AFL lawsuit addressing unstaffed ballot drop boxes, which he argues violate Arizona law despite their widespread use. "What the law says is it's a felony to maintain a ballot drop-off site that's not staffed by election officials. And yet almost every county, I think every county, has unstaffed drop boxes," he noted. AFL lost on this issue at the trial court level but has filed an appeal.
Rogers emphasized the importance of clean voter rolls and ensuring only citizens can vote: "It's just a basic fundamental premise of citizenship and how a republic functions."
Holly Swenson: Promoting Wellness and Civility
Holly Swenson, author of "Stop, Drop, Grow and Glow," joined Winn Tucson to discuss promoting wellness and civility in an increasingly divided society.
Swenson, who lives in Montana with her family, was moved to write an op-ed after witnessing violence against Tesla dealerships around the country. "I think I've lived in the U.S. my whole life and I've never seen this kind of unrest," she explained. "Using vandalism, arson, Molotov cocktails to set fire to cars and charging stations... these actions for me were really just a call to sit down and write."
While Swenson's passion is wellness and helping parents, she recognized the political unwellness currently dividing the country. Her writing aimed to give thanks to "two men in this administration who are really climbing an uphill battle" (referring to Donald Trump and Elon Musk) while approaching the topic from a middle position that emphasizes kindness and acceptance.
"Politics really isn't my love language per se, but I still fall to action here because I think that it is such a pressing issue and it is something that's dividing families and dividing the country," Swenson said. "When you are willing to sit with people who don't think like you, it really is a game changer and it allows you to form different thoughts."
As a mother, Swenson approaches parenting with a focus on encouraging free thinking and critical evaluation of information. "We don't inundate our children with news, but if they come to us and our kids are getting older, and if they have questions, we're open to receive those questions and talk to them," she explained. "We've really encouraged our kids to be free thinkers... to challenge themselves to really think outside of the box and not just trust everything that they hear."
Swenson currently homeschools three of her four sons, a decision that came at their request. While acknowledging this as a privilege not available to all families, she values the additional time it gives her with her children as they approach their teenage years.
On the topic of respecting leadership regardless of political affiliation, Swenson emphasized the importance of civility: "I think we need to be promoting respect of whoever is leading our country... even if you're in agreement with who's the elected president or not, there should be respect, order and peace in place."
She concluded by highlighting the need for a shift in how Americans interact with those who hold different views: "We need to show them what respect, consideration, and kindness looks like. Or we're going to continue to perpetuate this chaos."
Kelly Freeman-Evans: Hope and a Future Celebrates 20 Years
Kelly Freeman-Evans, co-founder of Hope and a Future, joined Winn Tucson to celebrate the organization's 20th anniversary. Hope and a Future, which serves foster children in Arizona, held its first-ever celebration dinner over the weekend, bringing together former foster children, volunteers, and supporters.
The organization began when Michael Brewer, son of former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, introduced Kelly to Both of My Kids Camp, a camp for children ages 7-11 who have been abused and neglected and are living in the foster care system. Moved by the experience, they decided to launch a teen camp, founding Hope and a Future with the guiding principle of Jeremiah 29:11, believing that all people, especially foster kids, need hope for their future.
"When you're doing God's work, he opens up the floodgates," Freeman-Evans explained. What started as a simple goal to create a teen camp quickly expanded to include life skills programs, mentorship opportunities, and most recently, transitional living homes for foster youth aging out of the system.
One of the organization's most impactful programs is what Freeman-Evans called the "princess program," where teenage girls in foster care receive dresses, professional hair and makeup services, and walk a red carpet lined with adult men in formal attire. "We had one girl that went through, she got off the bus and she did not want to be there... when she gets down to the red carpet, she's surprised by all these men lined up... and she just starts crying and she's like 'why are you doing this for me? I don't deserve this,'" Freeman-Evans recalled.
The girl's counselor affirmed that she deserved this treatment and more. "Come to find out her goal when she was at that camp was to commit suicide. She did not want to be alive anymore and because of that she told us that she wanted to live," Freeman-Evans shared.
Hope and a Future currently operates two transitional living homes for youth aging out of foster care and aims to have ten by the end of 2026. These homes provide affordable housing and life skills training for young adults who are not yet ready to be fully independent.
"What Hope in the Future is really working on now is the transitional living," Freeman-Evans explained. "As these kids grow up in a lot of group homes, they don't learn the life skills that they need to learn. And so when they turn 18, they're not ready to go out and be functional adults in the world."
The organization is a qualifying agency for the Arizona foster care tax credit, though Freeman-Evans noted that only seven percent of Arizonans utilize this tax credit option. "You can help support these kids and get your tax credit so it's a win-win for everybody," she said.
While Freeman-Evans has moved on from day-to-day operations of Hope and a Future, she remains connected to the cause. She and her husband now own a marketing company and are developing life skills videos for foster youth that will allow them to both learn essential skills and earn money.
The weekend celebration felt like a family reunion, bringing together the many lives touched by the organization over its two decades of service. "Michael [Brewer] is very intentional with his relationships with these kids, and he implements that with the staff and everybody within the ministry," Freeman-Evans said. "It's this trinket-on effect of we are family, not just for this temporary time that we're serving these kids but for a lifetime."