Capt. Chuck Vaughan, USN (retired),
President, Arizona Council of Chapters
of MOAA, presents the Communications
Award for Outstanding Website in 2025
to Marianne Cobarrubias. (Photo by
Jack Bundy).
Peggy McGee
The local MOAA Chapter won three awards from the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) for outstanding achievements.
The highest recognition, a Five-Star Level of Excellence (LOE) award is given to Chapters in all 50 states. The LOE awards are MOAA’s most prestigious affiliate awards, honoring councils and chapters for their efforts across the full scope of their mission. Levels for this award range from three through five, with five being the highest award.
The judges’ comments on the Green Valley Chapter include great advocacy work for a small chapter and an active chapter with meaningful and varied community involvement. Some of the community projects that the Chapter initiated during 2025 to become eligible for the top award included providing Challenge Coins to vets completing rehab for PTSD; groceries and gift cards to the Air National Guard, a project Quail Creek residents have supported for several years; generous scholarships to JROTC students and grants to veterans attending the University of Arizona; bedding for service dogs supporting blind vets; ongoing support for homeless veterans in the greater Tucson area; and gifts for teens at holiday time through the Santa Rita Fire Department.
The Chapter also received two five-star communications awards for excellence. The first recognized the MOAA website. Quail Creek resident Marianne Cobarrubias is the webmaster for moaagreenvalley.org. From designing the website about 10 and a half years ago to maintaining it throughout the years, she exhibits a high degree of creativity to keep the site informative, up-to-date, easy to navigate and enjoyable to read.
The second five-star communications award was for the newsletter, which is a collaborative effort between Ms. Cobarrubias and Peggy McGee. The latter is responsible for content and Marianne does the layout and graphics work to make it eye-catching.