Meli Mulido
Randi Kolesar
Joseph Lombardo
Harper Ko
CenturyLink donated $232,867.14 to Three Square Food Bank. The money was raised during the annual CenturyLink Backpack Buddies Food Drive, a nationwide food drive.
Cox Communications awarded $35,000 in higher education diversity scholarships as part of a $175,000, five-year commitment that began in 2014. The scholarships are in partnership with 100 Black Men of Las Vegas; Fiesta Las Vegas Latino Parade; Girl Scouts of Southern Nevada; Human Rights Campaign Las Vegas; the Puerto Rican Association of Las Vegas; Ilocano American Association of Nevada; Junior League of Las Vegas; Las Vegas Urban League; Organization of Chinese Americans Las Vegas; and the Gay and Lesbian Center of Southern Nevada. Cox Charities presented $110,000 to 25 nonprofits and celebrated reaching the $1 million milestone for grants handed out since 2007. Nonprofits that received a donation were the Animal Foundation, After-School All-Stars Las Vegas, Baby’s Bounty, Best Buddies Nevada, Cimmaron-Memorial High School Robotics Team, East Career and Technical Academy, Title I Homeless Outreach Program, City Impact Foundation, Desert Research Institution Foundation, Foundation to Assist Young Musicians, Friends of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Foundation, HopeLink of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas Rescue Mission, Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation, Nevada Child Seekers, Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, Rainbow Dreams Education Foundation, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas, Serving Our Kids Foundation, Shade Tree, Special Olympics Nevada, Spread the Word Nevada Kids-to-Kids, Street Teens, Three Square Food Bank and USO Las Vegas.
NV Energy donated $2,500 to the Red Cross to help supply and transport clean, drinkable water to Laughlin residents after summer storms and flooding forced them to boil water from their taps before drinking it. The NV Energy Foundation donated $1.25 million to the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health to create the NV Energy Chair for Brain Health Education. Dr. Dylan Wint, who leads the center’s existing educational programs, will spearhead the program. The NV Energy Foundation also donated $28,000 to the North Las Vegas Library District to upgrade 28 public-access computers.
Crazy Pita partnered with Shade Tree to collect school supplies for children living at the shelter.
The city of Henderson and Lowe’s helped Arturo and Maria Camarena and their five daughters build a home through Habitat for Humanity. The city of Henderson and Wells Fargo helped Taryna Wallace and her four children get a Habitat for Humanity home.
Boyd Gaming donated $1 for every dinner buffet purchased on Saturdays in August at six of its Las Vegas properties to Three Square Food Bank.
The Jabbawockeez visited pediatric patients at Sunrise Children’s Hospital and donated proceeds from “Wock As One: Summer Dance Intensive 2015” to the hospital.
Three Las Vegas-area Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza & Grill locations and Sammy’s Restaurant & Bar in Henderson collected school supplies as part of Communities in Schools of Nevada’s third annual Fill the Bus campaign.
Nevada State Bank honored 81 volunteers from Southern Nevada at its annual Financial Literacy Volunteer Recognition luncheon. From June 2014 through May 2015, bank employees volunteered to teach 692 classroom hours through Junior Achievement, Nevada State Bank’s “Banking on Your Future” program and the “Get Smart About Credit” and “Teach Children to Save” programs from the American Bankers Association.
Miracle Mile Shops donated all of the change tossed into its fountain in August to Communities in Schools of Nevada.
Nathan Adelson Hospice partnered with Grant Morris Dodds law firm to collect school supplies for students at Robert L. Taylor and Sunrise Acres elementary schools.
The Richard Steele Boxing Club in North Las Vegas hosted Threads for Teens, a nonprofit group that donated free outfits to 75 to 100 underprivileged girls.
Funding raised by Metro Police employees coupled with $1,500 from the Las Vegas City Fire Department’s Holiday Emergency Assistance Team allowed the Women of Metro to purchase more than 300 gifts for Child Haven, which houses children who have suffered abuse or neglect.
Square Salon, 1225 S. Fort Apache Road, Las Vegas, donated haircuts, styling and manicures to the CASA Foundation, which provides money and services to children who have become wards of District Court. Toll Brothers homebuilders collected backpacks and school supplies for the children.
Towbin Automotive and Ally Bank paid the balance of a Fiat owned by a woman who was murdered. Cassandra Cassidy, 24, was killed in April in a drive-by shooting outside of Solutions Recovery, where she worked. She reportedly was trying to help two women who felt threatened when men opened fire from a moving vehicle.
Petty Holdings, owner/operator of the Richard Petty Driving Experience, donated $10 from each ride-along in August to the ALS Association, which is working to cure Lou Gehrig’s disease.
March of Dimes presented Dallas Haun, chairman and CEO of Nevada State Bank, with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his dedication to trying to prevent birth defects, reduce premature births and reduce infant mortality. Since 1998, Nevada State Bank has raised more than $650,000 for the annual March for Babies.
MGM Resorts Foundation awarded $65,000 to Aid for AIDS of Nevada. AFAN officials will use the money to hire an on-staff psychotherapist.
Joey Serdoz, owner of Sun City Garage Doors, donated $10,000 to Make-A-Wish of Southern Nevada.
The Fremont Street Experience gave Three Square Food Bank a check for $10,660. The money came from SlotZilla revenue.
The Fantastic Indoor Swap Meet hosted a school-supply drive for the Clark County School District School Community Partnership Program.
The Mario Batali Foundation opened a Books for Kids library at the Variety Early Learning Center, 990 D St., Las Vegas. This is the 10th Books for Kids library the foundation has funded and the second in Nevada. The Variety Early Learning Center serves 120 children, primarily under the age of 6 and most of whom live below the poverty line.
The Las Vegas Fashion Council, Fashion Show mall, Best Agency, Stitch Factory, Macy’s, Eagle Promotion, the American Gem Society and T-Bird Jewels helped make dreams come true for a 10-year-old girl with lupus and a seizure disorder that causes her to experience up to 40 seizures a day. Milene Hernandez worked with Stitch Factory designer Kevin Smith to produce custom fashions; she worked with Sandie Simonson at Eagle Promotions to create T-shirts, and she worked with the American Gem Society and Jenny O. Calleri at T-Bird Jewels to design a custom necklace. “Milene’s Pink and Purple Runway Show” was the capstone of her Make-A-Wish Southern Nevada experience.
Brighton Collectibles collected 721 handbags for Dress for Success Southern Nevada. Friends of Black Mountain was the largest single donor group with 153 bags.
Meli Pulido and Harper Ko joined the Project 150 board of directors. Project 150 serves more than 1,900 homeless, displaced and disadvantaged high school students in 43 schools throughout Nevada.
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo and Randi Kolesar, director of slot marketing at Wynn Las Vegas, are board members at After-School All Stars Las Vegas.
Winners of the Richard Harris Law Firm’s 2015 Students with a Cause PSA Contest are: first place – Johnny Morales and Jordan Libby of Palo Verde High School; second place – Andi Nguyen and Alec Espinoza of Advanced Technologies Academy. Morales and Libby earned a combined $1,500 in scholarships and a $500 donation to their school for their video, “What if We All Believed in Ourselves.” Nguyen and Espinoza earned $1,000 total in scholarships for their video, “What If People Didn’t Litter.”
Carrie Messina, vice president of human resources at Wynn Las Vegas, is a member of the board of directors for the Boys & Girls Club of Southern Nevada.
Elaine Wynn was honored at the After-School All-Stars Un-Gala and 20th anniversary All-Star Games. Wynn founded After-School All-Stars. Also recognized were John Pucci, Kathy Harney, Jim Jimmerson and Susie Lee.
The board of directors of the Epicurean Charitable Foundation of Las Vegas and Avero LLC selected UNLV junior Karen Nava as the winner of the 2015 Avero New York City Restaurant Education Experience. Nava went to New York City for a four-day immersion in the food and beverage industry.
Five local high school students participated in a national Bank of America Student Leadership Summit, implementing programs and mentoring children through paid internships at Boys & Girls Club. The student leaders were chosen from more than 100 local applicants.
Vegas PBS won a national PBS Development Award in the Special Achievement category for its workforce-training program. Created in 2010 to respond to the recession, the initiative delivers job training and education to Nevadans while helping the state in its economic diversification efforts. The program includes more than 5,000 online personal enrichment, continuing education and professional development courses, as well as 330 career certifications.