Students, leaders give back to Las Vegas on Good Deeds Day
About 120 students and community leaders valleywide packed produce, donated blood and assembled Passover baskets Sunday to contribute to an international day of giving.
The events were part of the 10th annual Good Deeds Day, an effort to give back to communities. Local organizers said groups in 93 countries participated Sunday.
The Las Vegas effort featured seven events coordinated by Jewish Nevada, a nonprofit committed to strengthening the state’s Jewish community. The day itself has no religious affiliation.
Arielle Ventura, Jewish Nevada’s director of women’s philanthropy and marketing, said the day took months of planning.
“It feels amazing,” she said. “All the community comes together to give back on one day.”
Amir Eden, director of Israel education at the Adelson Educational Campus, said he came out as a community member to help assemble a team of volunteers.
At Three Square, the area’s only food bank, about 40 volunteers packed produce for local organizations, including Meals on Wheels and the Family Resource Center.
At other locations, volunteers cooked meals, landscaped and assembled Easter baskets.
Greg Yellin and Amanda Solomon recently moved to Las Vegas from New Jersey and said the event was a good opportunity to give back while strengthening the valley’s Jewish community.
“Since we’ve moved out here, we’ve noticed that there’s a lot of community service work that needs to be done,” said Yellin, who runs a Jewish student group at UNLV for Jewish Nevada.
Good Deeds Day, Solomon said, boils down to addressing issues that are close to home.
“It is an opportunity to expose members of the Las Vegas community to issues that are happening here,” she said.
The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, founders of the Adelson Educational Campus.
Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.
A previous version of this story contained an error. All events for Good Deeds Day were coordinated by Jewish Nevada.
