Proposed benefit concert for youth programs fizzles

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Friday, Feb. 2, 2007 | 7:08 a.m.

On paper six months ago, the idea looked like a slam dunk: Use the Feb. 18 NBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas as an opportunity to put on a big-name benefit concert to raise millions of dollars for minority youths.

Beyonce and Bono would sing, and Usher, Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z might show, too. Shaq and LeBron would host. And when the proceeds from the Feb. 15 Cashman Field event were divvied up, at least 17 local groups would benefit.

Unfortunately, the black community leaders who trumpeted the idea tossed up an air ball. The proposed concert fizzled out, the victim of skepticism, a lack of leadership or simple disinterest, depending on whom you ask.

A press release in August billed the event as a benefit concert that would raise "millions of dollars for disadvantaged 'youth at risk' " in the West Side, a neighborhood that is home to dozens of black Baptist churches as well as so-called majority-minority schools.

The press release listed phone numbers for Gene Collins, chairman of the local chapter of the National Action Network, and Sarann Knight Preddy, the first woman to hold a Nevada gaming license and a longtime civil rights activist.

Although Collins said this week that he was "still keeping his powder dry," Knight Preddy described the event as an example of "a good idea that doesn't get off the ground."

And Assemblyman Harvey Munford, D-Las Vegas, tapped by Collins to head the effort, said "it would've been great ... but there was a lot of cynicism and people were apprehensive about getting involved."

Reservations might have been based on the impression, Munford said, that "some people were looking to eat off the top of it."

The press release announcing the effort said that a Sept. 2 town meeting at Nevada Partners, a nonprofit organization on the Las Vegas-North Las Vegas border, would reveal "the bold new community plans to collaborate with Las Vegas leaders and the NBA stars." The release listed supporters of the effort and the nonprofit organizations that stood to benefit from any funds raised.

But the meeting suffered from sparse attendance - neither Knight Preddy nor Munford were there - and no other sessions were held.

"Best always don't happen," Knight Preddy said. "You have to have people who can work together and pull it off."

Donald Thornton, an Ohio-based marketing professional listed on the August press release as a member of the "event primary team," said the effort "fell apart at the seams."

"Everybody pledged their support," he said. "But quite often what happens is people go home and drink a six-pack."

Henry Thorns, director of the Dogcatchers, a nonprofit group that works with minority youth sports teams, was listed as one of the 17 "West Las Vegas Youth Beneficiaries" for the event.

Thorns said he was never contacted about the idea and called it "another project that went down to waste because of a lack of leadership."

Munford suggested the headline to this story read, "Black community lost an opportunity."

"This was a one-chance opportunity," he said. "We could've taken (it). We should've ... We're not getting a direct hit from the All-Star game. We're not in it at all."