Pardee assists The Shade Tree

For the 13th straight year, Pardee Homes will donate $500 to The Shade Tree Shelter for homeless women and their children for each home sold during the holiday season in selected neighborhoods, according to Pardee regional sales director Rob Tuvell.

This year's list includes the La Puerta and San Mateo neighborhoods in Mountain's Edge master-planned community in southwestern Las Vegas, as well as homes in nearby Trail Ridge. Pardee will make $500 donations on homes sold from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day, Tuvell said.

"Instead of choosing just one neighborhood, we picked three of the most popular neighborhoods in Pardee's 55-year history in Southern Nevada to help guarantee a generous contribution to Shade Tree," Tuvell said.

Last year, Pardee donated to the shelter $11,000 from sales of homes in Mountain's Edge.

Mike Darley, chairman of the board of The Shade Tree Shelter, credits companies such as Pardee for helping the shelter provide vital services to women and children in crisis in Southern Nevada. Pardee was honored by The Shade Tree as Homebuilder of the Year in a 2002 community awards event.

Located in downtown Las Vegas at 1 W. Owens Ave., The Shade Tree each year provides shelter to more than 4,100 abused and homeless women and children of this community, and serves another 15,000 women and children through day shelter.

"While 33 percent of our clients are children under the age of 18, senior citizens represent the fastest-growing segment of our population," Darley said. "They all owe special thanks to Pardee Homes for their continued support of our growing program."

The Shade Tree mission is to provide a safe, 24-hour-accessible shelter for homeless women and children in crisis in the Las Vegas area and assist them in taking their first steps toward independent living. In addition, The Shade Tree opened Noah's Animal House in October to provide shelter for family pets from abusive households.

Clark County's only 24-hour-accessible emergency shelter for women and mothers with children, The Shade Tree was officially founded in 1990, after serving those in need from the basement of St. Luke's Episcopal Church on Eastern Avenue. In late November 1989, the temperatures dropped below freezing and 15 homeless and abused women and children were given shelter in the church basement where they were protected from the weather and from the violence on the streets, Darley said.

Now the largest shelter of its kind in the state, The Shade Tree's 38,000-square-foot facility provides services such as meals and nutritional counseling, laundry and bathing facilities, crisis intervention, job skills development, mental health referral, access to medical care, immunizations and after-school and weekend activities for the children. For more information or to volunteer to help, call 385-0072.

Pardee, one of the West's largest and longest-established home builders, has constructed homes and communities for more than 35,000 families in Southern Nevada since 1952.