Michael Kennedy
Sean DiCicco
Tina Kilmer
Juliet Lim
Brianna McCullough
UPS donated $5,000 to St. Jude’s Ranch for Children. Dartoo Inc., which distributes soft-tip digital dart machines, donated a dart machine and $3,000. In other news, two people joined the St. Jude’s community advisory board: Juliet Lim, executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Global Cash Access; and Tina Kilmer, vice president of product compliance at Bally Technologies.
Las Vegas Firefighters won the 2014 “First Responder Challenge” for raising the most donations for the Movember Foundation. Local firefighters donated $5,350 to Mark Hedstrom, director of the U.S. Movember Foundation, which raises awareness of men’s health issues.
Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada received 4,500 pounds of food, including 86 turkeys, from MassMedia, a public relations, advertising and marketing firm. The donation helped feed at least 4,500 families. In December, Catholic Charities received 500 toys and raised $20,000 for homeless children and people in need during the 11th annual Toys For Tickets All Star Jam in Club Madrid at Sunset Station. Community sponsors included Sally and John Bedotto, Brian and Susan Buckley, Golden Gaming, Albert J. Guida Agency, the Investment Counsel Company, Randy and Staci Garcia, UFC, Sunset Station, Findlay North Volkswagen, Findlay Honda and 95.5 The Bull.
Fremont Street Experience donated revenue from SlotZilla to the Southern Nevada office of Susan G. Komen, dedicated to fighting breast cancer. President of Fremont Street Experience Jeff Victor and Director of Marketing Tom Bruny presented Stephanie Kirby, executive director of Susan G. Komen of Southern Nevada, a check for $10,000.
Brianna McCullough, senior vice president of marketing communications and product campaign manager for Nevada State Bank, was appointed to the Nevada Volunteers board of commissioners for a three-year term. McCullough has volunteered for Three Square and Junior Achievement of Southern Nevada and is a graduate of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce Leadership Las Vegas class of 2014.
Epicurean Charitable Foundation of Las Vegas elected Sean DiCicco and Michael Kennedy as president and chairman of the board, respectively. DiCicco is vice president of food and beverage at Mandalay Bay. Kennedy is the director of food operations at South Point.
Employees of MGM Resorts International donated more than 1.6 million pounds of food to Three Square Food Bank this holiday season in one of the largest single-city food drives in the nation. Employees set a record for the largest amount of food given in a single donation to Three Square. The donation will provide 1,342,050 meals to the nearly 137,000 people Three Square serves monthly. The food bank also received a $7,000 grant from Hunger Is. Three Square was nominated by managers at Southern Nevada Vons stores. Hunger Is is the joint charitable program of the Safeway Foundation and the Entertainment Industry Foundation.
America First Credit Union donated $10,000 worth of Thanksgiving turkeys to Nellis Air Force Base through Operation Warmheart, a group of military members who help other airmen. In partnership with Smith’s Food & Drug, the credit union bought turkeys for 700 military personnel and their families.
Tronox donated $1,000 to the Pinecrest Robotics Club at Pinecrest Academy. The club is comprised of 30 students from fifth to eighth grade.
Todd English P.U.B. and Communities In Schools of Nevada donated 25 food baskets to students at Cambeiro Elementary School.
Underprivileged children and families from After-School All-Stars Las Vegas, Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada received free Thanksgiving dinners at Piero’s Italian Cuisine, where 400 pounds of turkey, 1,100 pounds of potatoes, 2,000 rolls and 300 pies were prepared for 1,200 guests.
Control Power Concepts, a power engineering and technical field services company, and Miko Sushi, a Japanese restaurant, raised almost $7,000 during the second annual Miko Sushi Golf Tournament at Revere Golf Club in Sun City Anthem. All proceeds went to Laura Dearing Elementary School and Green Our Planet, a local nonprofit that helps schools create gardens. Sponsors included Nevada State Bank, Somersault Letterpress, TMW and Audi of Henderson.
Southern Nevada McDonald’s owner-operators donated more than $30,000 to more than 60 local teachers for a teaching garden, robotics program and mining camp. McDonald’s also donated $6,000 to the Clark County School District mariachi program.
The Las Vegas Chapter of Speedway Children’s Charities donated about $260,000 to local charities in 2014, including Candlelighters for Childhood Cancer, St. Jude’s Ranch for Children, Down Syndrome Organization of Southern Nevada, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Las Vegas and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Fundraising events included Laps for Charity at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the Drive for Charity Golf Tournament, PJ 5K Run and 1-Mile Walk and NASCAR Driver and Memorabilia Auction.
Eighty veterans and their guests were flown by Southwest Airlines to Las Vegas as part of the ninth annual Salute Our Troops program sponsored by the airline, Venetian, Palazzo and Omaha Steaks. The veterans arrived by police escort at the Venetian, where they were greeted by Sheldon and Miriam Adelson. The veterans were flown in from military hospitals in Washington, D.C., and San Antonio, Texas.
Grimaldi’s Pizzeria presented Neil C. Twitchell Elementary School with $1,000 for submitting 750 entries, the most of any school, to the Perfect Pizza Art and Essay Contest. Grimaldi’s collected more than 5,000 entries for the contest, a partnership with the Clark County School District School.
Henderson Hyundai Superstore donated $4,000 to STOP DUI.
The city of Henderson gave the Foundation Assisting Seniors the “Premier Community Award for Making a Difference in Their Neighborhood.” The award honors charitable efforts.
Ten nonprofits received $136,700 in grants from Bank of America. The grants will help people and families build better financial lives. Organizations receiving funding include Three Square Food Bank, Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, Help of Southern Nevada and St. Rose Dominican Health Foundation.
“CSI: The Experience” at MGM Grand raised $3,621 for SAFE House Las Vegas.