GLVAR’s Young Professionals make holidays bright

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors and its Young Professionals Network continued their tradition of kicking off the holiday season by making the month brighter for the children served by St. Jude’s Ranch for Children.

For the third straight year, YPN members organized a holiday toy drive that wrapped up Dec. 3, when dozens of YPN members visited the ranch in Boulder City to celebrate the season with a holiday dinner, desserts, gifts for kids of all ages and a visit from Santa. This year, YPN even brought a band called the Coalition for Christmas Cheer, led by local realtor Kyle Simmons.

Amber DeLillo-Diskin, a local realtor and YPN chair for 2016, said YPN members donated and delivered enough gifts for up to 50 children who reside at the ranch and whose ages range from infants to teens as old as 17.

DeLillo said, “These are kids who need love the most, and YPN Las Vegas wants to make sure these kids feel special. We’ll be providing them with a full holiday dinner, a visit with Santa and presents for every child.”

Like past years, she said YPN members donated thousands of dollars in gifts and food, including holiday favorites and treats that they don’t get to enjoy very often.

GLVAR members and others collected toys from five locations throughout Southern Nevada, including at the GLVAR’s building on 1750 E. Sahara Ave.

Along with other community service projects, she said YPN members have a history of helping the children of St. Jude’s Ranch.

“In the summer, we do a big barbecue for the kids there,” she said. “We have a bounce house, a dunk tank and all kinds of food, games and wet and wild activities. The kids love it.”

DeLillo-Diskin called YPN “a committed group of Realtors who want to become a good influence for the youth of the community by interacting with children and becoming good role models.” YPN has more than 400 members, including at least 40 Realtors who actively participated in the toy drive and events at St. Jude’s Ranch for Children.

For more than 45 years, St. Jude’s Ranch for Children has provided a safe and nurturing home and therapeutic residential treatment services to thousands of children. St. Jude’s makes a difference by creating hope for abused, abandoned and neglected children of all races and faith.

GLVAR was founded in 1947 and provides its nearly 13,000 local members with education, training and political representation. The local representative of the National Association of Realtors, GLVAR is the largest professional organization in Southern Nevada. Each GLVAR member receives the highest level of professional training and must abide by a strict code of ethics. For more information, visit LasVegasRealtor.com. E-mail your real estate questions to communications@glvar.org.