Henderson Allied Community Advocates (HACA) recently hosted a room-naming auction to raise funds for the nonprofit organization's new building, the Harry Reid Center for Children and Families and the Ritter Charitable Trust/Focus Property Group Outreach and Conference Center.
During the event, guests received a piece of chalk and participated in a silent auction by writing bid amounts on the walls of rooms at the center.
Some of the rooms that fetched large bids included the building's Client Welcome Center, which received $50,000 from Vince and Kelly Schettler; the Educational Resource Room, which got $15,000 from Darrin Badger; and matching donations of $25,000 each from KB Homes, the Ritter Trust and Andy Flaherty.
"It looks like we raised about $250,000 at the auction," said Daniele Dreitzer, executive director of HACA. "It was a pretty huge night for us. Our realistic goal for the night was to raise around $150,000, so we are very happy."
Dreitzer said the money raised by the auction will be used to furnish the new building and to fund regular maintenance and long-term support of the building and HACA's programs.
Barbara Gomez, co-founder of HACA, said she had seen room auctions used to raise funds for the Ronald McDonald House in the past.
"I didn't have any idea we'd get these kinds of bids," she said. "In the past couple of years, people have really stepped up to the plate."
Gomez said that action is necessary because as local population grows, need for the services HACA provides to the community grows with it.
She said when the organization was first established in the early 1990s, many in the valley didn't realize it was necessary.
"People would say there was no homelessness, no need for what we did, but we knew there was," she said. "And we knew we were going to get larger social problems as the community grew."
Gomez said she thinks it's hard to measure HACA's impact on the local community because the organization is involved in so many different ways.
"We have been doing a lot very quietly for so long," she said.
Founded in 1991, HACA provides assistance to people in transition from homelessness to permanent housing as well as other services to prevent homelessness, including distribution of food and clothing and a program that provides one time rental payment assistance and helps pay for utilities, as well as use of computers and addresses.
In 2004, HACA's services benefitted about 5,000 people in Southern Nevada.
John Ritter, chairman and chief executive officer of Focus Property Group, said he first heard about HACA through Leslie Devore, whose husband, Tom, is chief operating office of Focus.
Ritter said his group wanted to become involved with a Henderson-based charity, particularly because of Focus' new Henderson area project, Inspirada, a new master-planned community.
"It's great to have an organization that offers such a wide helping hand," Ritter said. "All of us get into places in life when we just need a little help, and the help HACA provides can keep problems from really getting extreme."
Dreitzer said HACA has been working to make the new building a reality for the past three years.
"It's been a little bit of an odyssey, but I'm excited that it's finally coming to fruition," she said.
Dreitzer said initial funding for the new building came from congressional funds earmarked for the project through Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. She said the organization also received some assistance from the city of Henderson as well as Clark County and Catholic Healthcare West, the parent company of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals.
The new building and the surrounding parking area should be completed by the end of January, and the organization will move its main offices from the current location on Lake Mead Parkway to the new building.
"We're really excited because the area we're moving to is really the heart of the area of need," Dreitzer said.
The new building will be equipped with an educational resource lab complete with eight Internet-connected computers, as well as arts and crafts and school supplies.
The new location also will have expanded room for HACA's clothing closet and food pantry programs.
"We'll also have a lot more space to offer to other entities to enable them to come into this area," Dreitzer said. "We already have connection with some other entities that offer services that help our clients, and we want to develop more of those ties. We're always looking for new partnerships."
Among the programs HACA is hoping to launch is a respite program for parents of special needs children and a consumer credit counseling service through the Internal Revenue Service to help clients with tax preparation.
"We really have to thank John Ritter and Hilary Westrom from Focus and a lot of Focus' staff -- they provided very generous offers," Dreitzer said. "And Sen. Reid and everyone else who was involved with the auction. It has taken so many people to come together to make this happen."
The Harry Reid Center for Children and Families and the Ritter Charitable Trust/Focus Property Group Outreach and Conference Center is at 178 Westminster Way. For more information, visit www.hacahenderson.org.
Archived Editions| Advertising | Contact The Staff
