Giving spirit fades after holidays

By Timothy Pratt

Monday, Nov. 29, 2004 | 10:54 a.m.

With the glow of Thanksgiving feasts fading on Friday, nonprofit organizations around the Las Vegas Valley geared up for the next big thing: Christmas, and the donations it brings.

At the same time, officials said, the outpouring of everything from turkeys to hands for holding ladles on Thanksgiving Day was a graphic reminder of how silent the sentiment of giving is the rest of the year.

"Everybody wants to help this time of year," said Adrian Lee Noffsinger, manager of the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, which offered a free Thanksgiving meal Wednesday to about 600 people. "But then we can't find them in March."

And though Noffsinger, like others in the nonprofit world, is grateful for end-of-year donations and volunteers, he had a message for the valley's good Samaritans: "Don't forget us when it's not the holidays."

Major William Raihl, Clark County coordinator for the Salvation Army, said that about 60 percent of the private donations his organization uses to help the needy come in November and December -- or about $600,000 of $1 million.

"If we have a bad Christmas, we have a bad year," he said.

Raihl said around Thanksgiving, when people "start seeing decorations going up and hear music, it's a reminder, and people want to go the extra mile."

The Salvation Army served 1,500 Thanksgiving meals last Wednesday and 1,000 meals Thursday, with the help of 100 volunteers -- "more than we needed," Raihl said.

The nonprofit official said the organization receives an average of 10 volunteers a day during the rest of the year.

"Most people have that spirit (of giving) the rest of the year, they just have to be asked," Raihl said.

One way his organization asks is by organizing specific campaigns to raise funds for specific projects, like summer camps.

"That way, people can have a reason to give during other times of the year," he said.

Similarly, Noffsinger said he had 150 volunteers helping with the mission's meal and wished he could have that kind of help the rest of the year.

For what?

"To sort more clothes to be given away to the community, write 'Thank you' notes, all kinds of things," he said.

Linda Lera-Randle El, who directs Straight from the Streets, a small nonprofit organization that helps the homeless but worked in larger organizations for at least a decade, said, "in the mainstream charities, you would see piles of stuff -- enough to help a small country" during the holidays.

"People get more of a conscience this time of year," she said. "It's not just about the money -- it's the time and the commitment."

Noffsinger said, "come the end of January, it's back to the drudge of daily work" for most people.

Meanwhile, at the mission's kitchens, after a few days of turkey soups and sandwiches, it will soon be back to beans and sandwiches.

"We won't have the abundance that we have during the holidays," he said.