Less fortunate remembered on holidays

Saturday, Nov. 14, 1998 | 11:15 a.m.

For many Southern Nevada families, it's either eat or pay the bills.

Many come to Las Vegas chasing a dream, then find out they don't have enough money for rent. Some single parents are working two or three jobs, raising their children in low-rent motels and unable to make ends meet, Jackie Davis, Las Vegas City Mission executive director, said.

The Census Bureau reported 12.4 percent of Clark County lived in poverty in 1994, a figure that would average about the same now, Keith Schwer, UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research director, said.

And the Southern Nevada Homeless Coalition reported that last year 18 percent of the 17,000 homeless in Nevada are children.

Thus, local shelters are scrambling to make life during the upcoming holiday season a little more palatable for people in need -- those who may not be able to put food on the table, let alone presents under a tree.

Las Vegas City Mission, in town only since August, is expecting a crowd of up to 1,000 to for its community dinner Nov. 25. It will be a challenge, as the mission doesn't yet have a freezer and the food will be shuttled from churches and homes to the mission just before the cooking begins, officials said.

The dinner will be in the parking lot at 1126 Fremont St. "We're praying it doesn't rain," Jackie Davis, executive director, said.

Davis said the need for a warm meal is more apparent during the holidays. Fortunately, that is when many are willing to give.

The Salvation Army receives 75 percent of the food needed for the entire year during November and December.

"That's the time when (people) can relate most to the needy," Davis said. "They want every family to have a sentimental dinner. We may not know what it's like to be homeless, but we all know what hunger is."

Though volunteers and donations are needed year-round, local shelter directors say they appreciate the extra help they get during the holidays.

"Christmas is an incredibly busy time for us," said Sumner Dodge, community relations director at the Salvation Army. In addition to helping the normal number of people on an average day, it serves an extra 20,000 during the holidays, he said.

The need has grown with the valley's population. The Salvation Army is helping 50 percent more people than 10 years ago.

To fill that need, the Salvation Army has changed its strategy. Ten years ago, the traditional Salvation Army bell-ringers were banned from downtown, the Strip and most malls after a protest by Hare Krishna devotees. As a result, income from that source is down 50 percent.

Some of that has been replaced by the Tree of Lights program at the malls, in which businesses and individuals pay $100 to $500 to dedicate a light on a tree. Last year, the Salvation Army made about $40,000 from corporate donations from the program.

The Salvation Army's Angel Tree program also fills some of the gap. It provided more than 21,000 toys and 10,600 items of clothing to children in Las Vegas last year.

The program puts trees at malls with paper angels representing children on them. Donors take an angel and buy gifts for the child noted, then put the gifts under the tree.

This year, the Salvation Army anticipates it will provide toys and clothes to nearly 10,000 children through the program.

Surprisingly, in a transient town such as Las Vegas where many can go years without meeting neighbors, the word at local shelters is that the community really cares about others, said Lt. Col. Maud Sullivan, who has traveled the United States for 40 years in service with the Salvation Army.

"The people of Las Vegas have always responded when the need is there," she said. "At first people don't realize this when they see Las Vegas with all the lights and glamour, but they really care."

Davis said she's also noticed a certain enthusiastic volunteerism in Las Vegas. That kind of caring community is the core of the Las Vegas City Mission, which survives entirely on donations, volunteers and grants.

"Sometimes all people need is someone to say 'I care.' When you think someone is on your side you think 'OK, I can do this a little bit longer,"' she said.

Which is why the mission doesn't focus only on hand-outs. "We're going to walk along side of them and help them get back on their feet," she said. "Our program is outreach."

"People come looking for jobs and end up in entry-level jobs for a while," Sullivan said. More people are only a "paycheck away" from being completely broke, she added.

There are chronic homeless people, said Lisa Ashley, executive director for Lutheran Social Services in Nevada, an organization that provides food emergency food, hygiene kits and layettes for the homeless, and there are those who wonder, "How can I get myself out of this situation?"

The organization collected 1,500 pounds of food at an emergency food drive Nov. 7.

Seniors are another concern around the holidays, Davis said.

"My experience with seniors is that they get just enough to make rent, pay electricity and water. What do you eat on? What do you pay your medical bills on?" she said. "That's the hurting part. They don't have the chance of having their income increased."