Wrong number, right person ‘a blessing’ for Vegas family

Sito Negron

Monday, Dec. 22, 2003 | 11:05 a.m.

Elizabeth Meltzer got a wrong number when she called seeking donations for the family of a former student. It turned out to be the right place to call, though.

She called the mayor's office last week seeking help finding a charity that would donate to her student Ronnie, a 4-year-old with autism and hemophilia, and his siblings.

"The dishwasher is going ... and my 4- and 5-year-olds are fighting over a toy," Meltzer said. "I could barely hear."

She jotted down the number she was given and called.

"I truly couldn't hear what the other person was saying. So I said, 'I'm calling about a donation.' They must have transferred me because I got somebody's voice mail. So like a horse out of the starting gate I started talking," Meltzer said.

"Later in the day my phone rang and this nice young gal Kayla was on the line," Meltzer said. "She said 'I have some nail polish kits at home, some clothes.' "

Meltzer said she thanked her, and then asked a question about the charity.

"She said, 'I don't know. This is Prudential Americana,' " Meltzer said. "I never heard what the people at the other end of the line were saying."

Kayla was Kayla Davis, executive administrative assistant at the Prudential Americana Group Realtors corporate office in Las Vegas.

She said she called Elizabeth back because "her story really touched me."

People in her office pitched in with clothes, personal items such as makeup, and a used IBM computer from the IT department. Christmas was delivered.

The story didn't end there, though.

Meltzer was at Summerlin Jewelers talking about the great outcome from a wrong number, mentioned the family -- Ronnie, his 10-month-old brother Matthew and two teenage sisters who live with their father -- and noted that the mother, Kim Kelly, didn't get anything.

Store owner Larry Minden ducked into the back.

"We had an 18-karat gold and stainless steel bracelet I thought would be durable and practical for a mother to wear on an everyday basis, and that's what we donated," Minden said.

Meltzer, who works for the Clark County School District's Home Bound program, which teaches children who cannot go to school, said the event constituted a real holiday miracle, all stemming from a wrong phone number. She told her story to the mayor's office, which featured it during Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's Thursday news conference.

She said the real hero of the story was Kelly, "who works 24-7 with real ill children, and I give her all the credit in the world."

Kelly, who said she's getting by on less than $700 a month in Medicare and food stamps, welcomed the help.

"Christmas is about people, and family," said Kelly, who was not able to attend the event Thursday because her son Ronnie was in the hospital getting treatment for anemia.

"To me Elizabeth has gone way beyond," said Kelly, who pointed out that Meltzer taught Ronnie during the summer, but wasn't currently teaching him. "She made the effort that caseworkers and social workers and people like that should have been doing ... and Ronnie wasn't even her student anymore. She's just been a blessing."