St. Jude’s volunteers help bring better days to troubled kids

Kris Hill

Saturday, Jan. 13, 2001 | 10:26 a.m.

All those involved with St. Jude's Ranch in Boulder City know how to make the most of their limited resources, particularly the members of St. Jude's Women's Auxiliary.

The auxiliary is made up entirely of volunteers and owns and operates the Good Buy Thrift Shop on East Charleston Boulevard. The store generates more than $100,000 each year, with most of that money going to the ranch, said Margaret Welch, a long-time volunteer with the auxiliary.

St. Jude's Ranch is home to dozens of abused and neglected children, most of whom are placed there by the state. The auxiliary was instrumental in the development of the ranch, which opened in 1967, said Toni Kizzia, community affairs director.

Recycling and reusing everything is one of the main ways ranch staff can provide for the children. Many of the buildings have been moved from other locations or are built around parts that came from other structures.

Food is often donated from local grocery stores, and when local hotels remodel, used furniture is donated to the ranch.

Clothing and other items sold at the thrift store are all donated, and right now the shop's back room and storage area are overflowing with items given by people who cleaned out their closets after the holidays.

Making the best of what they get and the effort the women's auxiliary puts in to selling items comes back in dividends for the children at the ranch.

"Money generated by the Good Buy Shop pays for whatever the children might need," Kizzia said.

A youth who stays at the Spanish mission-style ranch that sprawls across 20 acres lives with six or seven other children and two houseparents in one of the eight cottages on the property.

Staff members try to provide a stable, structured environment so that the children can heal, Kizzia said.

St. Jude's Women's Auxiliary has helped pay for many of the facilities at the ranch. More than 30 years ago they paid for a pool. In the past few years they have bought furniture for the cottages and other buildings at the ranch and computers for the children and staff, as well as tennis and basketball courts.

Women who volunteer with the auxiliary two or three days a week don't do it just to stay busy.

"Sometimes you wonder why you do it ... and then one of the kids will come back and tell you how successful they are, and it makes it all worth it," Dona Brown, a volunteer, said.

Brown is also the auxiliary's treasurer and Welch's daughter. Her mother talked her into joining the auxiliary.

Brown laughed at the memory. "She got me at a weak moment."

She has been involved since 1982, four years after moving to Las Vegas from Chicago. A difficult period in her childhood inspired her to become a children's advocate.

When Brown was 10, her father died, and her mother was unable to support her and her three siblings. For a short time she and two of her siblings lived with relatives, but a brother was placed in foster care.

"It was devastating," Brown said. But when her mother remarried later, the family was reunited.

Brown spends a lot of her time helping other children who have lived through difficult experiences to have a happy ending as well.

The auxiliary gives as much as it can, not just through the money that comes from the shop, but also the cash generated by fund-raising events such as the Christmas bazaar and Second Hand Rose fashion show in February.

But one place where the auxiliary needs to maximize its resources is in the recruitment of volunteers. As the women who belong to the auxiliary get older, Welch and Brown are concerned that they won't be able to find enough volunteers.

"Their biggest challenge is recruiting new members," said the Rev. Bill Cantrell, president of St. Jude's Ranch.

It's been hard for the auxiliary to get volunteers, but there are more immediate issues to deal with.

Right now the women are focused on sorting through the piles of post-holiday donations and preparing for the fashion show next month.

Because it takes a lot to raise a child these days, Kizzia said.