Wednesday, June 16, 1999 | 9:50 a.m.
DONATIONS
To make a donation or for more information contact:
LACE Telephone: 362-3387 Address: 3355 Spring Mountain Road, Suite D-53, Las Vegas, NV 89103.
A decade ago Joyce Eatman couldn't afford groceries.
After losing her job as a blackjack dealer at the Holiday Casino, she went from one social service agency to another trying to get help while searching for another job.
"There was no help anywhere," she said. "You had to be handicapped or a senior citizen or have little children. Some of them would give me this inch-thick application and tell me to come back in two months. But I was hungry right then -- I needed dinner that night, not in two months.
"I was some kind of mad. I just went home and cried and prayed and said 'When I overcome my need, I'm going to do something about this.' "
Today Eatman is founder and president of a nonprofit charity called Ladies Advocating Christian Entertainment (LACE), which has provided thousands of Las Vegans in need with groceries during the last six years.
LACE began raising money for canned goods by organizing "clean family entertainment" in the community -- Christian concerts or family shows. Guests were asked to bring nonperishable food and a $3 donation to the performances. Since then, LACE -- Eatman and more than a dozen volunteers -- has taken to selling bottled water at festivals and sporting events as its primary means of fund-raising. Eatman also works a full-time graveyard shift as a dealer at Caesars Palace.
"There's nothing 'not-Christian' about being a dealer, but I get criticized," said Eatman, who keeps a Bible open next to stacks of canned green beans and boxes of macaroni and cheese in the tiny LACE office.
"God blessed me with that job, and it's a good job, and it helps me finance this office, which benefits anyone regardless of race or religion or whatnot."
But financing the feed-the-needy mission has become more difficult as new residents flock to Las Vegas from around the country.
"The population growth comes with problems," Eatman said. "People come here on pipe dreams, and even families who are working hard can't always pay the rent and put the dinner on the table.
"These are not lazy people. There are people who come in here and say, 'I work and my husband works, but on minimum wage jobs we got behind this month, and we need emergency food for our kids.'
"Or we get people in crisis between jobs. But we don't have a big application or a lot of questions trying to make them feel bad. They're feeling bad already."
Eatman receives 20 to 100 referrals a month from welfare offices and shelters, and despite receiving some food from the recent Postal Service food drive, she has begun dipping into her own finances to keep the charity afloat, she said.
To refill the coffers, LACE is launching a summerlong membership drive and a penny drive. People may become members of LACE by donating $15 or more a year. Coin containers will be placed in businesses to collect customers' loose change.
"I'm hopeful," Eatman said. "Last year we were contacted by a woman who had been homeless with her little boy a few years back. She remembered when LACE came to her and gave her food, and now that she's on her feet, she and her fiance gave us a very generous check that went a long way toward helping us for a long while.
"People are good. I have faith in that."
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