Friday, April 1, 2005 | 5:25 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION
April 2 - 3, 2005
What: The Art & Innocence Celebration fundraiser, featuring an auction of artwork by children with life-threatening illnesses and an auction of fine professional artwork to raise money to send the ailing children to camp.
Location: Panos Hall and Events Center, 5300 S. El Camino Road, one block west of Jones Boulevard and Hacienda Avenue.
When: 5:30 p.m., Saturday, April 9.
Benefits: Project Sunshine of Nevada, which provides a cost-free camping experience for children with life-threatening illnesses, and the Torino Ranch, site of the camping venture.
Sponsors: CENTRA Properties and Stewart Title.
Emcee: Robin Leach, formerly host of the syndicated TV show "Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous."
Chairman: Garry Goett
Featuring: Hors d'oeuvres created by Chef Wolfgang Puck; wine and cocktails from Southern Nevada Wine & Spirits of Nevada and local resorts; a live jazz band, magicians and street performers.
Tickets: $200 per person. For ticket information or reservations call (702) 434-3699.
About 10 children made abstract art in the driveway of Leslie Davis' home Tuesday afternoon.
Stefanie Zavalza, 14, dripped paint on her canvas next to her 9-year-old brother, Javier Zavalza, who was splattering green paint on his own creation.
"That's awesome, Javier. It looks just like Nickelodeon slime," Stefanie said.
The children were making art that will later be auctioned with that of professional artists to benefit Project Sunshine of Nevada. The organization pays to send children with medical or other special needs to summer camps and regularly conducts art workshops.
Kari Tillman, founder and executive director of Project Sunshine of Nevada, says the courage she sees in the eyes of the critically ill children who benefit from the program is inspiring.
"These children really touch your heart," said Tillman, a Las Vegas resident of 32 years who started her organization in 2001 to give special-needs kids a fun place to go during the summer months. "Sadly, we lost two of our campers in recent months."
One of those children was an 11-year-old named Brittany, a leukemia victim who had been to every Project Sunshine Camp since the program's inception. On her deathbed at a local hospital Brittany told Tillman, her one-time camp counselor, that the project meant the world to her.
"She told me 'Don't ever give up the camp,' " Tillman said. "For so many of these children, this camp is the only normalcy in their lives -- the only glimpse they get of what it is like just to be a kid."
To send 600 critically ill or abused and neglected children, ages 5 to 17, to camp each year at the private Torino Ranch in the Spring Mountain National Forest, costs the organization about $190 per child -- about half of which is raised during the Art & Innocence Celebration fundraiser.
The second annual event will be 5:30 p.m. Saturday, April 9, at Panos Hall and Events Center.
Last year's inaugural event raised $55,000, Tillman said.
Several of the ailing children will showcase roughly two dozen pieces of their finest work, created either at camp or during yearlong workshops sponsored by Project Sunshine, a nonprofit organization.
Those works, along with professional art pieces, will be auctioned to about 550 people expected to attend the charity event. One child's artwork went for $600 last year, Tillman said.
"The kids love to see people competitively bid for their work because it gives them a feeling of pride that they are doing their part to send them, and other children, to camp," Tillman said.
"These children have faced unimaginable life circumstances, yet they are able to see beyond these hardships and express themselves through their unique artistic creations."
The professional art auction will include the pieces "To The Rescue" by Michael Godard, "Romance with Guitar" by Yuroz, "Country Road" by Sergey Cherep and an oil painting by Steve Barton.
Also on the auction block will be a painting on a donated Las Vegas Fire Department helmet by artist Bill Lopa.
Since its inception Project Sunshine of Nevada has sent between 2,500 and 3,000 children to camp.
Stefanie Zavalza was diagnosed with leukemia six years ago. She has been going to the camps since and said they are a great escape.
"It's cool they do these camps for kids so they have a chance to get away from their parents and meet new people ... especially other people that have the same things as you," Stefanie said.
Her brother Javier has von Willebrand's disease, a bleeding disorder, and said he enjoyed the many camp adventures.
"The funnest part, I think, is they have little golf carts there and sometimes they let you drive them," Javier said. "We do so much at camp."
Project Sunshine of Nevada has numerous volunteers, including oncology nurses, doctors, police officers and firefighters who provide one-on-one guidance for children in camp while the children participate in events such as rock climbing and archery.
"Safety is our No. 1 concern," Tillman said. "But the children also have a lot of fun."
The camp is operated from June through August and provides campers with hats, lotion, toys and other gifts as well as four days and three nights of activities, including swimming, canoeing and other sports, arts and crafts, theater, horseback riding, hiking, scavenger hunts, hayrides and train rides.
One camp session is for young burn survivors, while other sessions are for children with cancer, including leukemia and related diseases; children with bleeding disorders such as hemophilia and von Willebrand's disease; children with arthritis; and abandoned, abused, and neglected children from Child Haven.
Torino Ranch, a private facility owned by Las Vegan Brett Torino, is located in Lovell Canyon about an hour west of Las Vegas. Summer temperatures are about 20 degrees cooler than in the city.
The facility includes bathhouses, two lakes, a swimming pool and bunkhouses for campers and counselors.
Participants in the upcoming fundraiser can purchase $50 bags that include gifts, entertainment tickets and gift certificates. One of the bags will contain a tennis bracelet valued at $7,000 -- a gift from a donor who asked to remain anonymous, Tillman said.
Fundraising allows the children to attend camps free, said Project Sunshine of Nevada Fundraising Director Leslie Davis. She said five camps were held last summer.
It was at Davis' home that the children painted Tuesday. At times her driveway functioned like a canvas, but Davis did not seem to mind.
"This is one thing that a child can do to give back," Davis said of the artwork. Every year she volunteers at the camps she is struck by the children's approach, she said.
"They have every reason to be bitter because they're dealing with such dire circumstances," Davis said. "But they're not bitter at all. They're so filled with hope and courage."
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