Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Mysterious donation ‘opens up a lot of possibilities’

child haven donations

Mikayla Whitmore

The interior of the Recreation Center at Child Haven in Las Vegas on April 21, 2016.

Child Haven Donations

A rack of bicycles outside the Michael O'Bannon Cottage at Child Haven in Las Vegas on April 21, 2016. Launch slideshow »

The unexpected letter arrived in January.

A Kansas City-based investment management firm had good news for the Clark County Department of Family Services, in the form of a check worth $70,743.65.

William F. Wiemers, a man with no living relatives, had bequeathed the money in an individual retirement account to Child Haven, the county’s emergency shelter for abused and neglected children.

The notification unleashed “a lot of excitement and enthusiasm,” said Dawn Sanchez, manager of Child Haven. “It opens up a lot of possibilities.”

So why did Wiemers give such a generous gift to Child Haven? It’s a mystery. County officials haven’t found any connection between Wiemers and the county’s child-welfare system.

A spokesperson for American Century Investments, the firm handling the transaction, declined to provide details about Wiemers other than to confirm he was a client for 26 years. The Clark County Coroner’s Office said an 85-year-old man named William Frances Wiemers died Oct. 13, 2015, from heart disease at a local hospital.

“He is definitely going to have an enormous impact on these young men and women and boys and girls that he doesn’t know — will never know,” Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak said. “That he even thought about it says an awful lot about who he was.”

County officials say Wiemers’ donation is unusually large, but it’s not the only charitable contribution trickling into local government. The county tracks monetary donations, most of which benefit parks or services related to children, County Comptroller Jessica Colvin said. The county accepts only donations that are lawful and useful to each department.

During the 2015 fiscal year, recorded monetary donations totaled $122,512.67. The county is on track to likely surpass $200,000 this fiscal year. To put that into perspective, Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada raised nearly $200,000 during one luncheon earlier this month.

The difference: Unlike nonprofits and philanthropic organizations, the county can’t solicit donations. It can accept contributions thrown its way, but — let’s face it — most people aren’t inclined to give money to governmental bodies in forms other than taxes, fees and fines.

Donations of a certain size must be approved by the Clark County Commission, but that amount varies by department. For instance, the Department of Family Services must seek approval for donations of more than $25,000, officials said. The department logs other contributions on quarterly reports presented to commissioners.

A recent five-page report lists donations to the child-welfare system, such as Halloween costumes, Regal Cinemas gift cards, infant toys, diapers, stuffed animals, clothing and checks ranging from $20 to $12,500. Many of the material donations wind up in the “O’Bannon Outpost,” a Child Haven cottage filled with goods to make youths’ stay a bit easier.

The child-welfare agency welcomes all donations, but it especially values cash, which can fund anything from new glasses to soccer participation, said Tim Burch, director of the Department of Family Services. Donations help ensure “our children have the same opportunities that they would have if they were in a healthy birth-family dynamic — access to activities and resources,” he said.

Across town, the Clark County Museum also receives weekly, if not daily, donations. The museum, however, doesn’t keep track of donated items’ value.

“The value to us is can we teach with it?” said Mark Hall-Patton, the county’s museums administrator. “Something could be worth a million dollars and be of no value to us.”

Just inside the museum’s front door is the recent-acquisitions display, which, in mid-April, featured attendance sheets from a 1972 Elvis Presley show at the International; a Western Air Express map from the 1930s showing flight routes from Las Vegas; land-surveying equipment; and black-and-white photos of teens goofing around in 1905 in Searchlight.

A donor also recently gave the museum a box of rubble from the 1988 Pepcon explosion in Henderson.

“It’s the sort of thing you’d look at and think, ‘Really? This looks like trash,’ ” said Hall-Patton, who rose to fame after frequent guest appearances on the History Channel series “Pawn Stars.”

Trash it is not. The museum, he said, values anything that can help tell the story of Southern Nevada’s history.

He has a theory about why people donate money or material goods to local government: “Normally, it’s just a matter of people want to support things they see as a value to the community.”

Perhaps that was William Wiemers’ rationale. In any case, Child Haven now has an extra five-figure sum to help maintain some sense of normalcy for children in protective custody. As summer nears, Child Haven staff members are busy planning fun activities for the youngsters.

“His donation will help support that,” Sanchez said.

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