Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Volunteers work to make life better for poor students

Every Friday at Martinez Elementary School, where 20 percent of the students are homeless, children take home backpacks filled with nutritious food for the weekend.

Parents at Quannah McCall Elementary School are organizing a neighborhood patrol to escort children home through neighborhoods plagued by gang violence.

And at Cunningham Elementary School, ground will be broken Friday for a $600,000 student health center.

Each project has been prompted not by School Board dictate, but at the initiative of community volunteers who think they can make a difference in children's lives.

Their organization is called Communities in Schools of Southern Nevada. It's a middleman of sorts, matching local businesses and individuals with needy campuses.

"We don't do the education; we provide the support services around it to make sure kids have what they need to be ready to learn," said Louise Helton, executive director of the local affiliate of the nationwide Communities in Schools, a 30-year-old nonprofit organization. "For these children, this is the window of opportunity for them, and we can either be open for them or not."

Rather than focusing on fundraising, Communities in Schools asks individual campuses what is needed, and then leans on companies, civic groups, agencies and individuals to provide material, labor or money.

By its own tally, the organization has provided more than $1.2 million worth of services at Martinez Elementary since it built a health center there in 2004 - its first project in Southern Nevada. (By comparison, the organization's own operating budget just recently doubled to only $125,000, all of it privately raised.)

Optimistic that it has demonstrated its worth, Communities in Schools will ask the 2007 Legislature for $1.8 million as seed money to expand services to rural areas and Washoe County, where it hopes local donations will provide nutrition programs, dental care and hearing tests.

"We're always mindful of the places we aren't yet, and the children who need us, and need us now," Helton said. "We're hoping the Legislature believes it would be a good investment of state dollars to see our work here continue."

Bridget Bilbray-Phillips, director of the Clark County School District's School-Community Partnership Program, said she doesn't view Helton's organization as competition for taxpayer dollars.

"There's so much need at these at-risk campuses," she said, "we are grateful that Communities in Schools is taking on some of these responsibilities."

Some of its greatest success is in forging ties with private partners, large and small. Sponsors include MGM Mirage, Southwest Airlines, the Junior League of Las Vegas and area churches.

Winning community support is no easy task in this town. Research suggests Clark County residents are less philanthropic than their counterparts in similarly sized communities.

"When people are continually moving from one place to the next, they don't develop community ties," said Keith Schwer, executive director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV. "One of the things about philanthropy is, people need to feel connected and comfortable with who they're giving their money to, and what it will be used for."

The campus health center at Martinez relies on partners such as the University of Nevada School of Medicine, UNLV's School of Dental Medicine and Miles for Smiles, a nonprofit organization staffed by local dentists.

On Friday the group will break ground on its next health center, at Cunningham Elementary School. The Burns Family Trust donated the $600,000 needed for the 1,200-square-foot building.

Cunningham, on the east side of Las Vegas, needs help by almost any measure. Two-thirds of its student population turns over in a year and an equal number qualify for free and reduced-price meals. About 60 percent of the students are minorities.

Many of the students have never visited a dentist or had a comprehensive hearing and vision exam.

A campus health clinic will relieve parents from taking their children out of school for appointments, said Principal Stacey Scott.

Cunningham wasn't chosen just for the demographics of its own student body, but also to serve students at other schools in the neighborhood.

Communities in Schools also draws on individual volunteers to help campuses. In fall 2004 Debbie Johns, a recent arrival to Las Vegas, read about Communities in Schools' projects at Martinez. She visited the campus and asked how she could help. Johns ended up launching the campus pantry, which is used to fill backpacks with nutritious food. Since then the backpack program has been expanded to 11 schools.

"What I like about it is how immediate it is, which is very satisfying," Johns said. "Those children are going to eat this weekend because of something you did."

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy