Maricopa-opoly game offers residents fun and funds

Did you ever want to own the deed to Native New Yorker, collect $200 or build a hotel on John Wayne Parkway? Well, thanks to the first-year Maricopa Elementary PTO organization and a little game called Marico-opoly, you could accomplish the above – and more.

As part of this year’s fundraising game plan, the new school’s PTO has started gathering funds to create a board game in the likeness of the Parker Brothers’ world-renowned Monopoly game, through a Michigan-based company called Pride Distribution. The company will take names of businesses and places from Maricopa and fashion a monopoly-like game board “to reflect the likeness of our town,” PTO member BobbiJo Venegas says.

“It’s not something that only parents from one school would be interested in buying,” Venegas adds. “It’s something that the whole community can have, take home and enjoy.”

Though the Parker Brothers franchise has strict copyrights on the game’s look and components that prevent Maricopa-opoly from looking exactly like the original, the basics of the board game’s original concepts remain intact.

Presently 40 of the game squares are up for sale to local shops and organizations, priced between $300 to $500 each – the four corner spots being the most expensive. Over 100 printable surfaces are available on the board itself, on utility and chance cards, property deed cards and even the money; they can cost as little as $50, with $30 to $40 more if a company logo is included.

“If there are small businesses that are not actually in a strip mall but work out of their house, if they wanted to purchase a spot, they can, too,” PTO Vice-President Veronica Shurrab explains. “I would like to see them on the board just as much as I would like to see the UPS store or anything else like that.”

She also hopes to have Maricopa’s schools, its post office, city hall and fire and police departments purchase spaces. All money received from selling advertising spots on the board and other game pieces will fund the manufacturing costs of the black and white board set and professional shrink-wrapping. All monies generated from sales after that will go straight to the PTO to help them buy supplies and equipment for Maricopa Elementary.

“We’re trying to raise so much money the first year so that we can get the school up and running the way that it should be and not have any problems at all,” Shurrab says. “It’s so difficult right now with having only half of the school open, and the teachers are doing the best that they can.”

Pre-orders are being taken for $15 a game set, which the organization hopes to have in hand by at least Christmastime. Purchase price of Maricopa-opoly, after the games arrive, will then go up to $25. Those interested in reserving a game, or who want to learn more about purchasing a spot to advertise their business on the board or its components, should contact Brandy Griffith at [email protected] or by phone at (520) 568-6676.

“Our PTO is going to try to do more community-based stuff and not just strictly for the school,” Venegas says. “We want to get the community involved because a lot of people, like myself, are new here. We’re hoping (with this game) to pull it together, and to keep that community, small-town feel so that everybody can still know each other. You can just go ahead and let your daughter play with Sally’s daughter and feel all right about it. That’s this PTO’s goal.”