Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

UNLV athletes, Metro Police partner for children’s holiday party

Rebel Place Apartments Visit

L.E. Baskow

UNLV football player Devonte Boyd and other Rebel athletes teamed with Metro Police for a holiday party at Rebel Place Apartments on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. The goal was to help bring holiday cheer and community unity to an area that has historically experienced high crime.

Holiday and Community Unity at Rebel Place

Santa joins in a Launch slideshow »

The UNLV athletes who live at the Rebel Place Apartments near campus see these children on most days. It seemed only fitting they celebrate the holidays together.

Heads bobbed, hands raised, hips moved and legs stomped to Christmas music as children and their parents opened fortune cookies, drank hot chocolate and played football with the UNLV players Wednesday outside the complex.

More than 100 local children then lined up at the complex’s front door to eat pizza, take pictures with Santa Claus and unwrap gifts.

“She’s really pretty,” said smiling 8-year-old Las Vegan Maya Carlisle after unwrapping a Barbie Fashionistas doll. “I love Santa.”

The open-to-the-public party was the first such holiday event at the central valley complex, located less than a mile from UNLV’s campus. An estimated 70 of the complex’s 480 tenants are athletes from UNLV, according to its management.

UNLV wide receiver Devonte Boyd was one of four Rebel football players playing catch with kids in the complex’s parking lot, which was blocked off from oncoming traffic by event co-sponsor Metro Police. Children jumped in an inflatable bounce house and several more cruised down an inflatable slide nearby.

Boyd, who grew up in New Orleans and saw his childhood home destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said spending the afternoon with the children, who looked on wide-eyed in admiration, “meant the world” to him.

“It’s important to have someone to look up to, and we want to let these kids know we’re just like them,” Boyd said. “We’re all a part of this community together and we all want what’s best for each other.”

UNLV cornerback and Las Vegas native Salah Boyce agreed. Boyce, 20, a graduate of Arbor View High, said when athletes give back time to their community, “everybody wins.”

“It’s humbling because you don’t always realize the impact you’re making until you get out there and talk with people,” Boyce said.

Kimberly Grace was driving by Rebel Place when two police cars blocking the complex drew her attention. When she realized the cars were for a community party, she said she quickly picked up her children — ages 4 and 6 months —headed over.

Grace, who moved here last April from Los Angeles, said the event was a great opportunity to meet neighbors and introduce her children to athletes from nearby UNLV. She hoped such interactions would help unite an area of Las Vegas that historically has been a hot spot for crime.

“As soon as I saw it I had to turn around,” Grace said as she stood in line waiting for hot chocolate with her family. “We love it here so far, and I’d love to get to know some of these people. We’re still getting settled in.”

The event was perhaps as gratifying for local Metro volunteers as it was for the residents of the area and the UNLV athletes.

Spraying whipped cream on a cup of hot chocolate for a young attendee at Wednesday’s outdoor party, Metro Police academy student Jorge Blanco Wilson called the event significant in helping community members understand “we’re not the bad guys.”

Blanco Wilson, who immigrated to the United States from Cuba in 2011, said he hoped to serve as an example to immigrants, like himself, who hope to become community leaders.

“It’s a just good chance to help people here understand who we are and what we do,” Blanco Wilson said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from, all of us can come together at this time of year.”

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