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Every 1st Sunday Morning, Guy Dawson from the Cause Marketing Chamber of Commerce sits down with non-profit organizations in Las Vegas to discuss their businesses.
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You're listening to locally produced programming created in KU NV studios on public radio K, u and v 91.5.
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You're listening to special programming sponsored by the cars marketing Chamber of Commerce. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents, the Nevada System of Higher Education.
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People live in the whole world addicted to the drama Happy holidays everyone and welcome to the business of giving podcast. My name is Guy Dawson and I am the founder and executive director of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce. And cause marketing chamber is an organization that brings businesses and nonprofit organizations together to create synergistic relationships that benefit the community. The business of giving podcast exists to highlight two pillars of the community, the for profit and the nonprofit sector. If you'd like to learn more about what we do at the cause marketing chamber, we can be reached at cause marketing chamber.com. This valuable show is made possible through the generosity of our series sponsor, solar and energy solution and conservation company specializing in solar and battery storage systems, including solar panels. To learn more about them, they can be reached soul up.com. As a matter of fact, Seoul up we'll be back in the studio. Mr. Steve Amelie, who is the Chief Operating Officer for that company is going to be coming in with a nonprofit that is very prominent in the community called Hope link. And we'll be doing that broadcast on January the 10th. Is that just really looking forward to getting together with another nonprofit organization that sole up is affiliated with, we'll be giving you more details. In the coming weeks about that broadcast. We really have an eclectic array of people that we bring onto the show great nonprofit organizations, fantastic for profit businesses. And again, I hope you're all enjoying the holiday season and I think you're going to enjoy this podcast that we're going to do today I have a woman who is a part of a nonprofit organization that is definitely providing tremendous service for the community. Her name is Marsha Blake. She is the executive director of helping hands of Vegas valley. Welcome to the business of giving podcast Marsha. Thanks,
Unknown Speaker 2:50
guys. I appreciate the time opportunity to share our message with your listeners. I
Unknown Speaker 2:55
first encountered Helping Hands of Vegas Valley at an event we did. It was at Top Golf. I don't know if you remember that event a couple of years ago, a friend of mine named Daniel Chung invited me his business I guess was one that was one of the sponsors of the event. And he invited and I had never heard of helping hands of Vegas valleys before. You were the future nonprofit there. And I've ever since I've heard a lot of great things about the things that you do for seniors. And again, we're just we're thrilled to be able to promote nonprofit organizations that are greatly contributing to the community as yours is.
Unknown Speaker 3:33
Thank you. Those events are always fun, and it's great opportunity to meet and more people in the community. The more people that know about our services, the more people in the community. They can help inform about the ways that we provide service to senior citizens in our community.
Unknown Speaker 3:49
Will you share about your background? How did you become involved with this organization? So,
Unknown Speaker 3:55
in 1997, I ran for North Las Vegas City Council and met a group of people that had started well, at that point was called the James C strand Helping Hands of North Las Vegas, and named after the former mayor. I had a really, really great relationship with my grandparents growing up. I was fortunate to have them in very active participants in my life. And being here in Las Vegas by myself with no family kind of gravitated to the mission that they had, which was to help senior citizens. So I joined their board and November of of 97. And then I was on the board for a few years. I had my first child decided to quit my full time job and stay home and be a mom. And he was about four months old and they called me and said Hey, our volunteer coordinator quit Can you come just man the phones and sit in the office? I said well, I'm sure but I have this former Oh, baby. They're like, Oh no, no, bring him the seniors will love him, which is a true statement. And so here I am a mom of a four month old and trying to figure out how to be a parent. And I'm exhausted. And the Board President walks in one day and I said, When are you going to find somebody to replace me? And take this position? He said, Oh, we already did. And I said, Great. When did they start? And he said, you started three weeks ago. And that was 2223 23 and a half years ago. Since then, they've they we started helping hands of Vegas valley and helping hands of Henderson we are sister agencies. And then in 2019, we merged Helping Hands of North Las Vegas and helping hands of Vegas Valley into an agency to reduce the administrative costs. We were already combining a lot of our services and working together. And we wanted to reduce those administrative costs so that we had more dollars going to direct services.
Unknown Speaker 5:58
Hi, oh, by the way, the cars marketing coach Maria Perez is on the line. How are you Maria?
Unknown Speaker 6:04
I'm great. How are you today?
Unknown Speaker 6:06
Fantastic. Fantastic. We just recently, a few minutes ago started the podcast, Marshall Blake with helping hands of Vegas valley is just been sharing her background. So I know that the two of you know one another. Would you like to say hello to Marsha?
Unknown Speaker 6:22
Hi, Marsha. How are you today?
Unknown Speaker 6:23
I'm great. Maria, how are you doing?
Unknown Speaker 6:26
Pretty good. Great to have you today.
Unknown Speaker 6:27
Thanks. We're excited to be able to participate.
Unknown Speaker 6:29
So Marsha was just talking about her background? With this organization? That's a lot of years for you to commit yourself to a cause? Why? How? What was it? Or what is it about this organization that is so attractive to you?
Unknown Speaker 6:48
First, the opportunity to work with senior citizens, like I said, I grew up with my grandparents is a big important part of my life. And my grandmother specifically was a huge influence on me. And so being able to work with people who kind of emulate her, um, had a lot of the shared same shared experiences, as she did was that taste of home, I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. So I'm not super far from home. But I've lived here for 30 years. And so I this is now home. And they're such an amazing group of people that get forgotten a lot. They were they retire, right. And then they're supposed to live this grand, you know, retirement life. And most of them just sit at home and watch TV. They may play cards with a friend, you know, maybe once a week, they may, you know, have a church group that they get involved with. And so for the most part, their lives are pretty sedentary and pretty lonely. And I as they would come into our food pantry to get food, we would talk to them. And a lot of times we were the only socialization that they had for long periods of time. And my heart just broke. Because here are this amazing group of people with so much wisdom and so much life experience and so many really cool stories. And they just feel like they're a burden on society. And they're just sitting in a chair waiting to die. And I didn't I don't want people to feel like that. I don't want anyone to feel like that. We all have purpose in this life, we all have gifts that we've been given that we can share. And so part of our mission is is to help our seniors not be isolated, and to be able to use their gifts and talents to make sure they have a great enjoyable time left on this planet whatever time that is.
Unknown Speaker 8:46
Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure you have a question to ask. Right Marine?
Unknown Speaker 8:53
Well, I just think it's a fantastic organization. You know, I had have had the privilege until very recently, for the last four years to actually daily go to a memory care facility. And I I really, truly understand about the purpose and gifts and the wisdom and the life experiences. It's super, it's super important. Super important to take care of.
Unknown Speaker 9:21
Yep. And it's personal. It becomes personal. You know, we all we all have a mother because that's how we got here. Right? And most likely that Mother has a mother. And even if we don't know them personally, maybe they passed before we were old enough to know who they were understand who they were. We can see them through our our parents, and the things that they were taught by their parents. And it's very generational. It's very connecting. And I think that's that's one of the things so with a lot of pet nonprofits right, their goal is to get that animal into a safe home, where they can be loved for whatever the remainder of their life is right. And for children who struggle in education or with medical diseases, the goal is to get them healthy and send send them off to go do great big things in this world. And for our our goal is to make sure that those seniors have a quality of life while they have life left. So that they're not completely forgotten, because they don't get you know, their graduation is, is the end of their life. And we want that to not be a sad, lonely place to be.
Unknown Speaker 10:41
Well, tell us a little bit. This is such an important organization. And there's such a huge need for the work that you do tell, tell our listeners about your programs and how they can volunteer support your work. So
Unknown Speaker 10:54
we have five different areas of focus in our nonprofit. The first one is our transportation program. That's how we got started. We provide escorted transportation services to and from medical appointments, grocery store and necessary errands. Those seniors are picked up at their door, and we help them assist them into the vehicles and then we take them to wherever they need to go and we assist them out of the vehicle. There's no cost for the services. And so because they're on such a tight income, we want to ensure that they can have that access to transportation, which is vital if they don't get to their doctor's appointments, and they're not getting the medical care they need. They don't get to the grocery store, they're not getting the nutrition that they need. As we started that program, we discovered how many of our seniors were hungry. They were going without food to cover rent and housing costs and, and medical costs. And so we about the same time three square food bank opened, and we were able to partner with them on a pilot program called senior share, where we delivered boxes of groceries to medically medically insecure seniors twice a month. And that allowed us to start working on building our own pantry. And now we have home delivered groceries program where we deliver groceries to our seniors once a month. And we also have a walk in pantry where they can those who can drive and get themselves there can come in and that program we serve over 1800 Seniors every single month with that program. We have waiting lists of over 500 in our pantry program and we do emergency food to over 300 Seniors every single month. So it's that program is highly in need of support because it's growing so fast, we can't keep up with the need. We have a minor home repair program, which came again out of our transportation program and clients that there they would ask us for referrals of honest repair people. Because they a lot of times seniors get scammed that people come they take the deposit and then they never come back. And so we started our homework minor home repair program where we go in and do things that normal homeowners would do leaky faucets a clogged toilet, a toilet flapper that, you know, the water runs all the time now, because the that it doesn't steal correctly, appliances that don't work, so that they can have a fridge and a washing machine and an oven that works instead of an oven that has you know doesn't work but has only one burner. And so they literally can only cook on one burner. And then just we do things like air filters and smoke alarm batteries because we don't want seniors climbing on ladders and trying to change those things themselves. And yes, and and it's true. I have an employee who is a older person who climbed on a ladder to change your air filter. And she fell off the ladder and broke her wrist. And yep, and so I was like, you know, we you could have called Roger, who's our maintenance guy and he did come down that I do it myself. I'm like,
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well apparently he's used to doing right. And
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apparently you can't because you fell off the ladder and broke your wrist which he does I still got it done. Mike which that's why I love that's why I love working with that generation is because they are so they're they're self reliant to a to a fault sometimes to their for our homework or to their detriment. Exactly. We had a 94 year old man who didn't have a working water heater and hadn't for four years. Four years without hot water in his home. He would get buckets and pots and you boil water and that's how he would take a bath or a shower. That's how he would wash his dishes. Part of it is because he he was stubborn and didn't want to ask for help. But part of it was he did Know where to go. Right he didn't know who to call. That's a big thing we find with our seniors, especially the older generation, those 70 and older, they don't have the computer skills, they don't know how to Google things. Most of them don't even have a smart device or a computer or access to the internet to do those things. And so a lot of times, they just don't know where to go to find to find the help, then we have a respite care about your program. This program provides $1,000 vouchers to families who are full time caregivers of loved ones. Those caregivers need breaks for them to be able to have the sanity and the patience to deal with the situation that they're in. A lot of times, they're Alzheimer's patients. And so they're, they're already stressed, they're already you know, their parent is not acting the way their parent has their whole life. And they need that break. And so that opportunity provides that family with $1,000 to spend towards, they can do adult day health care they can do in home care, or they can do an extended stay, whatever, whatever they're looking for in that program. And then our final program is our nutrition program, which actually started during COVID. It came out of them closing all of the congregate meal locations throughout the whole entire state. We had all these seniors that were used to going and getting a free meal every single day, five days a week. And now not only did they have the free meal, they were shut off from groceries and all those other things. And so we started a rural home delivered meals program for those clients living in any rural area within Nevada is what how it started. And we would drop ship them 20 meals to their home just like Nutrisystem or factor meals. And then they would have those 20 meals that they were used to. And that allowed them to use their income for other things and they weren't having to use transportation dollars either. We've been able to continue that program just here in Clark County. And then we also started our own congregate meal program because we had started a home delivered meal program within Clark County. As all the restrictions got lifted, we switched that over to a congregate meal program.
Unknown Speaker 17:12
Yeah, lots going on that's going on. Just really quickly. Maria, I want to remind everyone that you're listening to the business of giving podcast here at 91.5k U N. V. Jazz and more. We are speaking with Marsha Blake. She's the executive director of helping hands of Vegas valley a nonprofit organization that does a lot to benefit our senior population. Soul up and its channel partners are providing complimentary solar to local charities supporting for Hope link transitional housing properties, solar to feed pets of the homeless Volunteers of America and opportunity village, their founder sits on the board of Nevada Conservation League. Also wanted to share with all of you an announcement from the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, we are hosting our first annual cars and business cruise October 19. Through the 26th 2024 we're going to take a cruise through the Hawaiian Islands it's a great opportunity for you to network with giving professionals proceeds from the cruise will benefit the nonprofit of your choice I just really looking forward to getting together with people who have the cars marketing mindset and others in the community. And going and taking a fun cruise we're going to do some community service while we're in the Hawaiian Islands. It's just it's an exciting opportunity that we want to share with all of you if you'd like more information about what we're going to be doing as a part of this cruise info at cars marketing chamber.com or cars marketing chamber.com I had did have a question for you really quickly. Marsha volunteerism I have when I'm listening to the things that you do for seniors, it reminds me so much of what we do at the cause marketing chamber, because we're a resource for connecting these two sectors. But of course you need people to make this happen. volunteerism is such a big part of what makes nonprofits function. Tell us about your approach to to getting volunteers and what a person would experience as a volunteer with your organization.
Unknown Speaker 19:22
So we participate in a lot of volunteer opportunity boards. So like Volunteer Match, just serve.org and then our own website, where people can go and learn about the different volunteer opportunities that we have. We have one time volunteer opportunities so if you have a group that wants to come pack paper goods or pack groceries for our pantry, those types of opportunities are there. We also have opportunities for people who want more of a commitment, volunteer opportunity so we have opportunities for people to call the seniors and help them place their grocery orders, we have reassurance calls that we do we have birthday calls that we do. So if you know you love to talk, and you're, you know, you have some time, we can definitely use that volunteer skill as well. We also have the people that deliver our pantry groceries on the first and third Saturday. So that every first and third Saturdays, when we do our grocery delivery, we use 40 to 50 volunteers each Saturday to do those deliveries. And they're given a route where they take the same five to eight people every single month. So that helps them to kind of build that relationship. And it's not just a different person at the senior store every month, but that consistent person. And that's a great opportunity for the entire family. So the parents can sign up, but they take the kids, our youngest volunteers two years old, she comes with her mom and dad every month. And she this month, we gave the seniors blankets for Christmas. And she was out there carrying her the blankets because that's what she can do. And they get bread and that her mom says that her job is she carries the bread to the door every time. And it's a great boost for our seniors to to see younger people and to be able to interact with them. And so if you're looking for a corporate type of an event where you need a team building experience, we can provide that opportunity, all the way down to very individual and family oriented oriented opportunities.
Unknown Speaker 21:33
Any questions? Maria.
Unknown Speaker 21:35
I'm just amazed that, you know, I'm having a look here at your impact statement. And I mean, the bragging rights that you have are just phenomenal. And I know that to accomplish all of these wonderful things. And to have this type of impact. It takes money, lots of money. And I believe you are a beneficiary of one of my favorite things of all time The Giving machine. Could you tell us a little bit about that?
Unknown Speaker 22:01
Yes, we are so excited this year to be able to participate in the giving machine. So the Givi machine is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And it is literally a vending machine where you go, and you put your money in. And you select the type of service or item to donate somewhere. So normally, if you put the your money in, and you want the m&ms and you type in the number and the m&ms Come out, and you take your m&ms home, but this is an opportunity for you to give back to an organization in the community or worldwide. So helping hands a Vegas valley, we've completed the grant application and we're selected. We're at the Green Valley district location. And it's a great opportunity to go donate, take your kids, one of the biggest things that I think our generation needs to teach our children is philanthropy. It's It's thinking of others, it's serving others. And this is a great way to introduce kids to philanthropy. And they have things as low as $5. So it doesn't have to be, you know, it's not a huge donation for $5. For us, you can buy brain teaser books that those we send out to the seniors because the more active they can keep their brain. It keeps Alzheimer's away that there's proven that as they learn new things, and continue to use their brain continually that it it holds off Alzheimer's. And so we want to provide those things. They have a worldwide organizations that they donate to, or offered you to donate to. And they have chickens and goats and to see the little kids and their eyes light up when you tell them they can buy a goat. And then one little kid was like, Well, I want my goat so I can take it to the person. And we're like that's not quite how it works. And he was a little bit upset about that, that he didn't get to take the goat and give it to the person himself. But again, a great opportunity for families to teach their children about philanthropy in such a small way. And the wonderful thing is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints covers all the administrative costs. So every dollar that is donated to any of the nonprofits, we get directly, they pay for the credit card processing fee, they pay for the machines, they pay for all of the administrative costs. So every dollar that you contribute goes directly to that nonprofit.
Unknown Speaker 24:28
It really is a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant cause marketing approach the giving me seen I just I talk about it all the time in my work, because it really is very, very clever. And super beneficial clearly to a nonprofit like yourself like when you run
Unknown Speaker 24:45
Yeah. So there the machines will be up and tell January 2, there's two locations. We're at the location in Green Valley district but there's also a Summerlin location at Downtown Summerlin. So if you're closer to there, you don't want to drove all the way to Green Valley, there are amazing nonprofits there that you can donate to as well to help their cause along, so we encourage everyone to can and is looking for a way to give back this holiday season to go check out the giving machine See, see what they can find there.
Unknown Speaker 25:16
Yeah, living in Vegas valley, we have a lot of seniors and an aging population overall all over the country. And so the services that you provide Marsha, I think are so, so vital. And as a there was a lot of things that she talked about in this interview that resonated with me. But when you were speaking about a lot of seniors just not knowing that there are resources out there that could help to remove their loneliness, or to make repairs on their homes, just the fact that you are providing this information for them, I think is just, it's just so important. And that's why this platform exists is we don't know the senior out there who really could utilize the services, but it's just a lack of them their lack of knowledge more than anything else. And this could really make an impact on a person's life just connecting with an organization like yours.
Unknown Speaker 26:09
Yeah. So even if you're listening to this, and you're not a senior, but you're trying to figure out how to find resources, we have this amazing resource called 211. And you literally take your phone, and you dial 211 And you hit send, and you will get an operator, you get a live person, you do not get a recording. And they will give you up to five resources for services that you need. And so whether you're needing Child Services or family services or senior services, they they know about all the different opportunities for how they can receive services in the valley. And that saves making 10 or 15 different phone calls. Because the people at 211 10 zero and on the best fit for that your needs.
Unknown Speaker 26:54
Fantastic. Any other questions that you have for Marsha, specifically Maria.
Unknown Speaker 27:01
I just I just want her to tell all of our listeners, all the information, the contact information, once more your website, how they can they can participate and support your programs and your volunteer needs.
Unknown Speaker 27:15
Sure. So our website is W W dot h h o v v. So helping hands of Vegas valley.org. We have information about all of our programs, all of our services, how to donate how to volunteer on our website. But if you don't have access to the internet, our phone number is 702-633-7264. And we have people that answer the phone and we can help you that way.
Unknown Speaker 27:44
Marshall Blake again is with helping hands of Vegas valley an organization that is helping a segment of our population as she mentioned earlier that is often forgotten who absolutely should not be forgotten. These are our fathers or mothers our uncles are it's just so important that we take care of the seniors in our lives. And so thank you so much for the great work that you continue to do over there and helping hands Marsha,
Unknown Speaker 28:07
thank you and thanks for this opportunity to share about our our programs and our mission to hopefully people that need the services will hear and can reach out to us. Maria,
Unknown Speaker 28:17
the cars Marketing Coach, how can people connect with you to learn how to partner with wonderful organizations such as helping hands a Vegas valley.
Unknown Speaker 28:26
If you're interested in discussing cause and social issues marketing clients, you can reach me at Maria at cause marketing consultants.com I'll be happy to chat with you.
Unknown Speaker 28:36
We always want to remind you that you can listen to the business of giving podcast on Spotify, Apple podcast, and Amazon music. We also invite you to follow the cause marketing chamber social sites. And again we welcome you to tune in to the business of giving podcasts every Sunday at 7:30am on K u and v 91.5. FM. The business of giving podcast was brought to you by soul UPS underwriting of our series. Again enjoy the holiday season and always remember to give and do business for you. Take care of yourself
Unknown Speaker 29:19
wave is
Unknown Speaker 29:31
the weight of the world on my shoulder as I'm getting older your people gets older. Most of us only care about money.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai