The PRT Good Neighbor Award recognizes people who voluntarily build a better community in Canelo, Elgin, Sonoita and Patagonia. We asked our readers to nominate someone they knew who was a “good neighbor.” Thank you for sending in your nominations for the 2025 Good Neighbor Awards. Congratulations to this year’s winners!
Kathryn Leas’ letter to the PRT nominating her neighbor Cassaundra “Cassie” Baker for our annual Good Neighbor Award was one of the most persuasive we have ever received.
“Cassie and her husband Spike welcome others into their home,” Leas, of Sonoita, wrote, “hosting dinners, helping people move, and assisting with maintenance projects. At a moment’s notice, Cassie will help watch other local children. She volunteers at 4H events, and helps locals sign their kids up for 4H. She is a go-to when it comes to local people having minor issues with their animal wellness – many go to her for tips and guidance on farm animals. And Cassie has a Facebook blog, Baker’s Dozen Acres, where this past holiday season, she encouraged other farm owners to post their Amazon wishlists so that others could gift them with various items they may need and be unable to obtain themselves.”
The Bakers moved to Sonoita from Florida five years ago to be near Cassie’s father. Born in Tucson, and remembering the summers there, Cassie was a bit hesitant to return to Arizona. But her father convinced her to try it here in the Sky Islands. Settling on 12 acres with their Dorper sheep, goats, chickens and a pig or two, the Baker family found contentment on their homestead. “It’s beautiful here!” Cassie says. She’s glad they made the move.
And so is the community, which has benefited from Cassie’s time, expertise and countless acts of kindness.
Mother of five children ages 10 and under, Cassie is also caretaker of the family’s menagerie of farm animals, while running a business looking after Airbnbs with husband Spike, who’s a local handyman and kids soccer coach. Cassie homeschools the family’s three school-age children, Hayden, Sophia and Roan. (Two-year-old Amelia and 5-month-old Gavin are too young to start their academic endeavors.) “I love teaching!” Cassie says, having been introduced to it in Florida during the COVID epidemic. Her hobbies, Cassie says, “include things we do because we have a farm: cheesemaking, baking, canning and so on.”
And then there’s crochet. The Facebook blog. And raising butterflies with the kids every year, attracting them with the native milkweed plants purchased from the Borderlands nursery in Patagonia.
“You would think Cassie and Spike have their hands full as is,” neighbor Leas wrote in her nominating letter to the PRT, “but no, they are always willing to assist whenever someone else needs a hand. I have firsthand experienced all of these acts of kindness personally.”
How does Cassie find the time and energy to be so giving? The answer is simple.
“When we had a barn fire shortly after moving here, the community rallied to help us get back on our feet,” Cassie says. “And just before Amelia was born, we were given a ton of baby item donations.
“I help where I can.”