Columnist Susan Snyder: Charmed by devotion to chimes

Friday, July 26, 2002 | 9:24 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

Sam Micco is a dealer.

Blackjack, craps, veneration.

Take your pick.

For the first two you'll find Micco at the Hard Rock Hotel 40 hours a week.

For the other you can find Micco -- or rather, what he sells -- at inspirationsbymicco.com.

Micco, a 17-year veteran of casino work and former publisher of a how-to gaming magazine, is betting on salvation these days by selling Blessed Mother Wind Chimes, which he designed after his mother died in 1997.

"When I tell people at work about it, they look at me and say, 'That's nice,' " Micco said.

He sat in the kitchen of the North Las Vegas home he shares with his wife, Maryanne, and their two teenage kids. They've lived in it five years, but the back yard is still covered in red gravel as it was they day they moved in.

The money for the yard -- and everything else -- has been sunk into Micco's latest business venture, which he says is more calling than capitalism.

"Here I am making money on religion. I felt bad about that at first," he said. "But then I thought, what better way to support your family?"

He sells wind chimes that dangle from resin statues of icons from the Catholic faith. There are five -- Our ladies of Grace, Medjugorje, Lourdes, Guadalupe and Fatima. Each one is a copyrighted design Micco conceived himself.

They are made in China and shipped directly to Micco. His three-car garage is stacked to the rafters with cases of Our Lady in three colors. When the orders come in, Micco and his wife are a two-person assembly line of packing, tagging and shipping (two days anywhere in the United States -- longer for overseas).

"I'm the guy who licks the stamps. I'm the guy who makes the phone calls," Micco said. "But when people tell me they used my wind chime as a Christmas present for their mothers, that's mind-boggling."

The idea came to him after his mother died in his hometown of Newcastle, Penn. He was wandering around in her home the day after the funeral when he heard the hummingbird wind chime he'd once given to her jingling on the back porch.

He took his nephew's truck, his brother's ladder and the wind chime to the cemetery, where he hung it in a tree overlooking his mother's grave.

Three months later, Micco's older sister succumbed to cancer. He once again found himself in the Newcastle cemetery. The wind chime still was there, but it was broken.

He had it fixed, and before hanging it again he took it to a family friend who is a priest and had it blessed.

"You bring a Bible, a medal or a rosary to be blessed," Micco said. "You don't bring a hummingbird wind chime."

After he returned to Las Vegas, he decided he should create a wind chime that would be appropriate for such occasions. His original line is decidedly Catholic, so Micco is now working on a Jesus chime for all Christians.

He doesn't say how many he's sold, but he says he has shipped them to Canada, Ireland, Australia and Malaysia. He even sent one to the pope -- gratis.

"It has inspired me, my life and my faith. And it's made my family closer," Micco said. "Some people sell used cars. I sell a religious icon that brings a lot of comfort to people spiritually."