Y2K bonus

Officials at Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada were convinced in early December that the world was not going to come to an end in a fiery Y2K millennium disaster, as some doomsday prognosticators had warned.

But if people were going to stock up with more canned goods, clothing and other supplies than they could use in a reasonable amount of time, the agency figured, why not ask for the excess stuff once the fear was over?

Catholic Charities ran a sizable ad in local newspapers beginning Monday seeking Y2K overstocks, and the response of donations has been excellent.

"We got 25 calls when we got into work Monday and have had 60 to 70 calls since then," Sharon Mann, spokeswoman for Catholic Charities, said.

"Our director, Ed Skonicki, came up with the idea after reading about potential Y2K disasters and thought, 'What's going to happen to all of this stuff when there are no disasters?' Canned goods do not last forever. They have to be rotated."

In addition to food, the agency received offers of furniture, a washer and drier and toilet paper, Mann said.

"If they no longer needed them, we can use them," Mann said. "Y2K is every day at Catholic Charities."

She noted that her agency's Social Service caseworkers see 80 to 90 poor families a day and give each of them a basket containing a two- to three-day supply of food.

"The food doesn't sit around here, it goes fast," Mann said.

Other area charities decided not to aggressively go for the Y2K overstocks mainly because they said the public's generosity this past holiday season already was far beyond what was expected.

"We felt that Y2K was way overblown and just didn't want to bother with it," Lt. Col. Maud Sullivan of the Clark County Chapter of the Salvation Army said. "It has been a good year and our warehouse is full.

"Our Boy Scout food drive in November was a big success. If there was a disaster we would have been ready."

The Rev. David Blacksmith of the Las Vegas Rescue Mission said his shelter also had a good Yule as far as local food drives were concerned, and his pantry still has food from the large Raley's donation last fall.

"We will be picking up stuff that was donated for the next two weeks," he said. "We think that what we have received will get us through most of the year."

Sullivan and Blacksmith said that while their agencies are not aggressively going after Y2K overstocks, they are not turning down such generous offers either.

"If any of our supporters have excess supplies and want to donate, they know we're here," Sullivan said.

All three large agencies that help the homeless and other poor said they got excellent support from the public last month.

Frank Richo, director of residential services for Catholic Charities, called it "a banner holiday season. The outpouring of help from corporations and citizens was tremendous."

Catholic Charities provided poor children with more than 2,000 Christmas toys. Mann noted that many donations came from KLUC 98.5 FM radio and KTNV-TV Channel 13.

The agency served 2,800 meals to the poor on Thanksgiving and Christmas in the St. Vincent's Dining Room. About 12,000 pounds of food were served, Mann said.

Blacksmith said his agency served 2,700 meals on Thanksgiving and Christmas and gave 1,500 toys to children. He said the Madame Tussaud Wax Museum at the Venetian hotel-casino donated 1,200 of those toys, making it possible for the Rescue Mission to give each needy child three toys instead of just one, as had been planned.

The Salvation Army served nearly 1,300 meals at Thanksgiving and Christmas and provided 7,700 toys to poor children. Sullivan credited the donation of 4,000 toys from the Marine Corps Reserve's Toys for Tots program as a key to the success of her agency's holiday efforts.

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