Hixson honored for humanitarian efforts on behalf of Lied Foundation Trust

      Some give their time. Others their energy. Still others their money.
      Some give all three.
      But the one thing they all give, in whatever form it ultimately presents itself, is their heart.
      Selecting the city's top local humanitarian unquestionably is the most difficult category in the two-year history of the Best of Las Vegas Publisher's Picks. For every person who has ever chosen to help someone less fortunate is, by definition, a humanitarian.
      How do you differentiate between someone who donates thousands of dollars to a college scholarship fund and someone who drops loose change into the March of Dimes and Muscular Dystrophy cannisters at local minimarts? How do you choose between someone who donates blood to help others live and someone who holds the hands of hospice patients who are dying?
      Answer: You can't.
      So if you've ever stopped to help another person, give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back. You were in the running for our local humanitarian award.
      Still, when you conduct a poll -- even in a category as widespread as this one -- you're going to have names that come to the fore more than others. As such, we applaud four recipients -- a total of five individuals -- whose charitable work is worthy of note.
      Chosen top local humanitarian is Christina M. Hixson, trustee of the Lied Foundation Trust, a philanthropic organization in the name of the late Ernst F. Lied. Also earning multiple accolades were local HIV/AIDS physician Dr. Jerry Cade and philanthropists Bill and Susan Walters of The Walters Group and Andre Agassi of the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation.
      Hixson began working for Lied in 1944, when he was owner of the nation's third-largest Buick dealership in Omaha, Neb. In 1958, Lied began making land purchases in Southern Nevada when, according to Hixson, "he saw Las Vegas as a place that would really grow."
      When Lied died in 1980, she became trustee of the foundation bearing his name.
      "It was funded after his death, but Mr. Lied left no specific instruction on how the money was to be distributed," Hixson explains. "We are careful to use the money in ways that will honor him."
      Among the organizations benefiting from the Lied Foundation Trust are the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada, Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, Economic Opportunity Board of Clark County, First Presbyterian Church, Lied Discovery Children's Museum, Lied Middle School, Nevada Ballet Theatre, New Horizons Academy, The Salvation Army, University Medical Center's Lied Ambulatory Care Center, United Way and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
      "Miss Hixson has a real open ear when worthy charities have a need for help," says Ed Skonicki, executive director of Catholic Charities of Nevada. "So many organizations have benefited from Lied Foundation support it would be hard to count them all.
      "Whereas many individuals focus on one or two areas of fund-giving, Miss Hixson has always been wide-ranging. I know I can't ever thank her enough for what she's done for us."
      Through the Lied Foundation Trust, St. Vincent's Plaza has a new $2.5 million dining and kitchen center.
      A longtime benefactor of the trust has been UNLV, where everything from academia to athletics has been touched by Hixson's caring hands. The trust's name appears proudly on the Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies and Lied Athletic Complex and will be on the under-construction Lied Library.
      "Christina Hixson truly represents all that is good about this community," praises UNLV President Carol Harter. "Her devotion to Las Vegas and its citizens is evident by her extraordinary gifts to so many important community projects. ...
      "These projects (at UNLV) are products of her vision and belief in improving the Las Vegas community. I know of no finer humanitarian to be selected as `Best of Las Vegas.' "
      Finishing second to Hixson and the Lied Foundation Trust is Cade, who has spent almost 15 years seeing to the medical needs of Southern Nevadans suffering from HIV/AIDS.
      The former family practitioner admitted his first HIV/AIDS patient to University Medical Center in 1985. Since records were first kept on the disease in the late 1980s, approximately 6,000 cases of HIV/AIDS have been diagnosed in Southern Nevada.
      Almost all of those infected have benefited -- directly or indirectly -- from the professional and political activism of Cade, who is the co-founder and medical director of the HIV/AIDS unit at UMC. In the early years, when other doctors wouldn't take patients' desperate phone calls, the Texas transplant always responded.
      His commitment to improving the lot of his patients earned Cade an appointment in 1995 to serve on the Presidential Advisory Task Force on HIV/AIDS. He had served on the Nevada council since 1987.
      Also in 1995, Cade co-founded the Nevada Research and Education Society, a nonprofit, community-based research consortium dedicated to improving the lives of people with HIV disease and their families through HIV/AIDS clinical trials and psychosocial and behavioral studies.
      "This is how I really feel about Jerry Cade," offered Jeff Smith, executive director of Aid for AIDS of Nevada. "It's a rare opportunity in life to meet your hero. In my case, not only did I meet him but I consider him my friend.
      "With Jerry, I see absolutely no ego. The work he does is not about him. It's always about his patients. It's always about placing the need for health care ahead of everything else -- whether it's working with the insurance carriers or even getting paid himself."
      While The Walters Group, founded in 1988, is a holding company for diversified investments and business ventures in the areas of real estate and recreation, including design, development and ownership of golf courses throughout the United States, it also has provided numerous financial contributions to local charities.
      Bill and Susan Walters have been closely involved with the Opportunity Village Foundation and United Way of Southern Nevada, and are active supporters of Nathan Adelson Hospice, Shade Tree shelter, Variety Day Home and YMCA of Southern Nevada, among other organizations.
      The Walters' charity work has earned the unending appreciation of, among others, Linda Smith, executive director of Opportunity Village Foundation. Opportunity Village provides educational and life-work training for the mentally disabled.
      "They're unbelievable people, the way they give of themselves," Smith says of the Walters. "The way Billy speaks from the heart on behalf of the people we serve ... I just tear up when I hear it.
      "He and Susan have given a lot of money to help our facilities, to support our many, many causes. They have a real soft spot for our people -- people who, through no fault of their own, are forced to live a difficult life."
      In the case of tennis superstar Agassi, the focus of his foundation's work is youth -- specifically, at-risk youth.
      The Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation has raised more than $10 million through five annual Grand Slam for Children Concert benefits. Last year's event at the MGM Grand generated the most money ever: $3.2 million.
      Among the 15 youth-oriented charities supported by Agassi's foundation are Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada, Boys Hope-Girls Hope of Southern Nevada, Child Haven, Cynthia Bunker Memorial Scholarship Fund, Inner-City Games and Project Youth.
      "I've always believed it was important to remember where you came from," Agassi said prior to playing in a foundation-sponsored exhibition match at All-America SportPark in February. "And there is nothing more important in life than children.
      "I just feel fortunate to have the means to be able to help some of them."
      So, too, does Deborah J. Verges, executive director of Southern Nevada's eight Boys & Girls Clubs. With a foundation pledge of $1.25 million and the donation of 14 computers, the 25,000-square-foot Andre Agassi Boys & Girls Club opened on North Martin Luther King Boulevard in July 1996.
      "Look around," Verges says, standing in the lobby of the multipurpose center. "If it wasn't for Andre Agassi, this building would not have been built.
      "Anytime you can get an individual of his stature to step forward and put everything behind a project like he has this one, you know it's going to work."