Providence, the 1,200 acre master planned community located off of Interstate 215 and Hualapai Road, held a fifth birthday celebration for the local charity Spread the Word Nevada: Kids to Kids on June 3 and 4.
Focus Property Group, the community's master planner, wants to create outreach programs within each of its master plans that bring attention to a social cause.
"We want to get the community involved with book drive events and book signings," said Lisa Habighorst, executive director of Kids to Kids.
The new community has taken its partnership with the organization into consideration in every stage of its planning and design.
"People are asking to return to the neighborhoods of the past," said John A. Ritter, Chief Executive Officer with Focus Property Group. "(Providence) will have a literary theme throughout, focusing on westward expansion and classic literature."
There will be references made to Mark Twain and Hoarse Greeley and parks and open spaces named for Huckleberry Finn and the Knickerbocker Tales.
"Plaques and statues of characters from literature will be found throughout the community," Ritter said. "They should stimulate kids' and adults' minds."
Kids to Kids, the literacy based nonprofit organization, gives books to Las Vegas students. The group has adopted 12 low-income schools.
Books are gathered from many places including donations, book drives, and publishers overstock. Most books are used but some are new.
The nonprofit also helps with literacy causes throughout Nevada.
A breakfast is held once a month at each school for the students and family members participating in the program. Parents or guardians are given literacy tips and everyone takes a new book home. The meetings help to ensure that the children are reading their books and that the families are getting involved.
Kids to Kids sponsors Pennies for Pages each year. This is where the children get sponsors to donate a penny for every page they read and Habighorst said the group usually brings in $10,000, which can help about 9,000 students.
Ritter -- who also runs the Ritter Charitable Trust, a supporting organization to the Nevada Community Foundation, for the support of children and families in need in Southern Nevada -- has pledged to put up $50,000 for the read-a-thon. Students had read 140,000 pages with about a week left to read. Habighorst said they should raise about $100,000 this year.
"Their partnership has brought us so much support," Habighorst said. "Just knowing how to reach out to the community helps."
Kids to Kids started with eight stay-at-home moms learning to run a nonprofit organization as each new challenge came up.
"We can do a lot with $100,000," Habighorst said. "That's half our budget. This plus knowing (Ritter) is there for us. His support has made our future look so much brighter."
In the program's five years it has helped 50,000 children and families and given over 605,000 books.
Habighorst said although they have done a lot it is not enough.
"There is a waiting list of schools," she said. "The need is there. Now we will be able to take on more schools. We will be able to reach out to more children in the valley."
When completed Providence should give the feel of small-town America.
"You will see it in the size of the trees and the streetscapes," Ritter said. "We secured 4,000 trees two years ago. They started as large trees now they are just enormous. We wanted to have the feel of shade tree lined streets from the start."
The Providence master plan allows for 33 acres for parks and 10 miles of trails systems, 63 acres for schools consisting of two elementary schools and one middle school, in addition to the existing Centennial High School. Five acres of neighborhood commercial are planned.
Providence will be comprised of an estimated 7,500 single and multi-family units in 39 subdivisions. Numerous builders including, Astoria Homes, Avante Homes, Beazer Homes, Fairfield Residential, KB Home, Kimball Hill Homes, Lennar Design Studio Homes, Lennar Everything's Included Homes, Meritage Homes, Pardee Homes, Pulte Homes, Richmond American Homes, R/S Development, Ryland Homes, Toll Brothers, Warmington Homes Nevada and Woodside Homes began opening models this month. All models will be open by the end of the year and in early 2007 the first completed homes should be ready for residents to move-in.
"We think the project will be something people remember growing up with," Ritter said. "Neighborhoods are now geared towards vehicles not pedestrians. People miss the neighborhood feel. Knowing their neighbors, their children being able to walk or ride a bike to school. People are asking for a return to the neighborhoods of the past. Providence will provide that."
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