Columnist Susan Snyder: Moapa group centered on the needy

Monday, April 12, 2004 | 8:17 a.m.

Jackie Dailey knows the Clark County Fair typically promises two increases for the Cappalappa Family Resources Center, which she runs in Overton.

Money and clients. She just hopes the former exceeds the latter.

Dailey is program director and the only full-time employee of the nonprofit Cappalappa organization that offers social services to needy residents in Moapa Valley.

This past weekend, she joined her one part-time staffer, Becky LaGrow, and a small army of volunteers in selling ice cream, sodas, candy and other junk-food delights to visitors at the Clark County Fair.

A small portion of the concession profit and all the money collected in donation jars placed on the counter will help feed and clothe poor people who live in the pastoral community surrounding the fairgrounds.

Every fair seems to bring a few more newcomers, some of whom find living in the country can be more financially challenging than it looks.

"This is a wonderful community to live in," Dailey said. "We came here by coming to the fair. You come out and say, 'I'd like to live out here.' "

The problem, she said is, there isn't much of a safety net for people whose dreams crumble.

"They come here to get away from the hectic life in Vegas. but if you don't have reliable transportation or you don't have a job, it's hard," Dailey said. "People have jobs then lose their jobs. That's when they spiral downward."

And that's when Dailey and her workers meet them. Clark County social service workers visit Moapa Valley twice a month to help with referrals and other services, Dailey said.

But when it comes to making sure a family has clothing or emergency food through the end of the month or literacy classes every week, it's up to the volunteers and donations provided by Cappalappa.

Dailey commuted to a job in Las Vegas the first six years she lived in Overton. For the past three, she has worked solely as the Cappalappa center's top administrator.

"It has increased every year," she said of the client caseload. "We have 263 case files at this time, but that's just files. There are sometimes five, six or seven children to go with one file."

Donations and fund-raisers like the fair booth help. But the main staple of the center's budget is an annual state grant. The Nevada Legislature cut it from $36,000 to $21,000 in the last session, Dailey said.

Too bad the requests for help are not diminishing as well.

"There are not a lot of job opportunities out here. There's Nevada Power, the (Clark County) School District and some construction," she said. "I still have people from 9-11 who lost their jobs and who haven't been able to get back to work yet."

There are bright spots. Dailey spoke of volunteer Mona Long who delivers food, does the laundry and generally know no bounds when it comes to helping the community's struggling senior citizens.

"This woman has even washed their dogs," Dailey said. "If we have people who call and say, 'I need diapers, and I don't have a car,' we take the diapers to them."

Don't fret if you missed a chance to help the Cappalappa crew at the fair. They accept donations all year. Call 397-6400 or e-mailcappalappafrc@ nvdsl.com.