THATCHER — “Tonight isn’t just a celebration of what you’ve completed, it’s a celebration of what you’ve started,” Torey Cranford said at Tuesday’s 2025 Graham County Dreambuilder Graduation, at Eastern Arizona College.
Fifteen of the Gila Valley’s newest entrepreneurs received their certificate showing completion of the Dreambuilder program, designed by Freeport-McMoRan and the Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU to empower women to start or grow their own businesses.
Vicki Seppala, general manager of Freeport’s Safford operation, spoke at the graduation, congratulating EAC’s Small Business Development Center with developing a program “with an extraordinarily high success rate.”
– David Bell Photo/Gila Valley Central
Instead of being operated as online only, as originally designed and implemented in other parts of America and the world, the SBDC at EAC offers one in-person session each month and brings in expert speakers, in addition to the online course work. The result is a 77-percent graduation rate compared to 27 percent when online only.
Royce Hunt-Bell, owner of Roycycled Treasures and a 2019 Dreambuilder graduate, was the keynote speaker. She talked about each person’s “why” for starting a business.
“When the road gets hard — and it will — your ‘why’ will be what carries you through,” Hunt-Bell said. “Every time your business grows, you will be asked to grow with it.”
– David Bell Photo/Gila Valley Central
2025 Graham County Dreambuilder Graduates
- Cassandra Alva
- Natalie Barron
- Amber Bejarano
- Lizelly Benevente
- Katrina Berryhill
- Adriana Brown
- Simone Coseo
- Mercedes Delahunt
- McKenna Hendrix
- Sundi Hendrix
- Sarah Lamb
- Melissa LeBlanc
- Mindi Marshall
- Ashli McClain
- Nicole Pock
– David Bell Photo/Gila Valley Central
Editor’s note: Reporter David Bell is the husband of Royce Hunt-Bell.
