Christensen Development’s Center Pointe Plaza and Trails Village Center shopping centers partnered with 15 tenants to purchase over $1,000 worth of food from each small business to donate to Summerlin Hospital, Metro Police and Fire Station No. 7. Participating tenants included Chow Mein House, Pizza Hut, Port of Subs, Rolling in Dough, Teriyaki Madness, Tropical Smoothie, Domino’s, Einstein’s, Mazzoa Donuts, Rocco’s NY Pizza, Sultan’s Grill, Tail & Fin, Thai Wok to Go and Veggie Eat. The group has donated over 4,000 meals to front-line workers while also providing business to restaurants.
Delivering With Dignity, an emergency response to help vulnerable and isolated residents during the pandemic, has delivered more than 18,000 meals to those in need and has expanded to support community facilities, including domestic abuse and homeless shelters and the Valley’s first responder emergency response headquarters. The group provides an average of 4,500 meals per week, and each delivery can feed the recipient for three days.
Aaron’s, an omni-channel provider of lease-purchase solutions, donated nearly 500 mattresses to multiple shelters in Nevada affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, including Las Vegas Department of Family Services and Safe Nest.
Olympia Companies SH Charitable Foundation donated $1 million on behalf of the annual Governor’s Black Tie Event to nine local charities, including Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada, Operation Warm Heart, Candlelighters, Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation, Children’s Heart Foundation, Assistance League of Las Vegas, Opportunity Village, Andson, Discovery Children’s Museum and the Folded Flag Foundation. Though canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Governor’s Black Tie annual event has raised funds to assist the community’s less fortunate children and women since 2001.
Southern Nevada Home Builders Association members raised $468,100 to assist Nevada’s COVID-19 Response, Relief and Recovery Task Force. The industrywide donation from 50 companies and individuals began with StoryBook Homes owners Wayne and Catherine Laska donating $50,000 and offering to match up to another $50,000 for a total contribution of $100,000. In addition, several donations of personal protective equipment were made to local health care providers. Additional companies and individuals who contributed include: Signature Homes, The Howard Hughes Corporation, Pinnacle Homes, Pardee Homes, Woodside Homes, Pulte Group, Century Communities, D.R. Horton, Beazer Homes, KB Home, Shea Homes, Lennar Homes, Richmond American Homes, Taylor Morrison, Toll Brothers, Las Vegas Electric, Home Builders Research, Jeff Stafford, Chris Carr, Joe Terrano, Janet Love, Jeff Carr, John McLaury, Nat Hodgson, Quincy Edwards, Ryan Breen, Todd Stratton, Rusty Schaeffer, Bonnie Hernandez, Nicole Bloom, Jason Demuth, Joe Ferraro, Anne Law, Gail Payonk, Monica Caruso, Angela Pinley, LeAnn Brennan, Eric Tan, Ryan and Amanda Moss, Curt Friedman, Jennifer Taylor, Ben Bodja, David Goldwater, Kevin Newell, Liz Sedeno and Amy Thill.
Goodwill of Southern Nevada donated five pallets, totaling over 5,000 books, to Spread the Word Nevada, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing early childhood literacy by placing books into the hands and homes of children within Nevada’s at-risk, low-income communities. Goodwill has also partnered with Communities in Schools of Nevada and the Public Education Foundation to provide books and bags to some of our community’s most at-risk children.
Hope Means Nevada, a movement to raise awareness around mental health and teen suicide, launched six months early to support Nevadans with increased stress and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. The campaign was created by R&R Partners and 30 partners and supporters including organizations like Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, Las Vegas Raiders, UNLV, Vegas Golden Knights, the cities of Las Vegas and Henderson, R&R Partners Foundation and Clark County Medical Society Alliance. The goal is to connect the community to appropriate resources for help and support, creating a statewide culture of sustainable funding and caring for mental health, and ultimately reversing Nevada’s suicide rate.
Angela Edgeworth, who owns Pediped, a children’s shoe manufacturer, donated 1,000 masks to the Cashman Isolation-Quarantine Complex. The donation, secured through the Mayor’s Fund for Las Vegas LIFE, is the result of the organization’s efforts to coordinate and secure donations of cash and essential items needed to combat the coronavirus in our community. Edgeworth is also donating masks to clinics and hospitals throughout the Valley. In addition, her company is making fabric masks, including them as free items with random online orders.
The James M. Cox Foundation, the charitable arm of Cox Enterprises and parent company of Cox Communications and Cox Automotive, has donated $25,000 to Three Square Food Bank. Given the nonprofit’s current donation-matching campaign, this gift represents approximately 150,000 meals for Southern Nevadans.
This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.