Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Jack Sheehan on the too often overlooked generosity of Southern Nevada’s residents

We've all heard the many raps on Las Vegas. Highest suicide rate. Ridiculously high smoking rates. Abominably low test scores in our public schools.

Some of these community skid marks are deserved; others the sad result of runaway growth and the siren's lure that suggests our city is the last refuge for second chances.

But if someone did a study on philanthropic activity, I'd venture Las Vegas would rank somewhere near the top of the pack. We have four locally produced and hosted events a year that raise more than $10 million in an evening for great causes. Show me another city of our size that can compare to that generosity. On second thought, don't bother. You can't find one.

Philanthropy comes from the Latin roots that mean love of man, or love of humanity. In today's vernacular, the word has come to mean giving time or money to a charitable cause.

Sometimes a sense of philanthropy is instilled from birth or passed down through generations of a family; other times it evolves slowly through a maturation or ever-increasing awareness in people of means that there are others who have not been as fortunate and need a hand.

Bill Gates was criticized years ago for being too tight-fisted with his billions. At some point the light went on, and in tandem with his wife he established the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is now the biggest benefactor of worthy causes in the world.

In older American cities such as New York and Boston, there are recognizable family names like Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Kennedy, Whitney and Astor that appear on buildings and streets and museums and libraries, precisely because those families not only achieved great wealth, but also gave much of it back to better the communities that were so good to them.

Being only a century old, Las Vegas doesn't have many of those fourth- and fifth-generation families. But we do have several second- and third-generation families who have profited immensely from the Vegas Boom and have given back in kind. The Fertittas, the Parry Thomas family, the Greenspuns (owners of the Las Vegas Sun), the Donald Reynolds Foundation, Larry Ruvo ... the list could go on.

But there's also a new wave of Las Vegas philanthropists, those who have earned their fortunes in just the last two decades, who fully understand the beauty and importance of giving. One such couple is Jim and Joan Hammer.

"There are so many people in Las Vegas who, because of the city's tremendous growth and prosperity, have been enriched beyond their wildest dreams," Jim Hammer says. "And yet I see a lot of the same people doing all the giving. I'd like to see the circle of giving grow wider."

Hammer, who owns a framing company and whose company, Storage One, rents space to about 30,000 customers in Las Vegas alone, has evolved from his beginnings as a craps dealer at the Las Vegas Hilton in the 1970s to earning significant wealth by working hard and taking full advantage of our surging population. When a city quintuples in growth in 30 years, it's no surprise that the most enterprising land developers and homebuilders are perfectly positioned to reap the benefits. What they do with their good fortune comes back to whether they possess a spirit of philanthropy. The Hammers do a lot. Their list of active charities includes Boys and Girls Clubs, Project Sunshine, the Candlelighters, the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute, Lied Children's Discovery Museum, Shade Tree Shelter, Opportunity Village, Habitat for Humanity, Olive Crest and several others.

When building their current home, Jim and Joan did so with the idea that they needed a lot of outside room, not only for their two children and their children's friends, but to create a venue for large fundraising events.

They host an annual fundraiser for the Nevada Cancer Institute that in just the last two years has raised about $34 million and allowed NCI to continue to make strides in breakthrough cancer research and care for patients. The Beach Boys, the Bangles, and this year Earth, Wind and Fire are the drawing cards which help the evening sell out.

"It's fine to have all the material pleasures - the homes and cars and vacations - but nothing makes us feel better than helping out someone else who needs a hand, and Joan especially gets so much joy out of helping children that are in need," Jim says.

Philanthropy goes beyond writing checks to charities. It also extends to simply doing nice things for people.

Recently, the Hammers hosted a gathering at their home with the express purpose of allowing their friends and their friends' children to spend some quality time with two of Las Vegas' most storied athletes, future Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux and former UNLV All-American and all-pro quarterback Randall Cunningham.

That evening my wife, Carol, saw a little boy come up to Greg with saucer eyes and say, "I saw you play in Atlanta once against the Mets. We were right behind the first-base dugout."

"Was that you?" Greg replied, as though he remembered. "I think that was the game they hit about three dingers off me."

"No," the boy replied, "you were really good that night."

The moment was one of those priceless gifts that boy will never forget.

Fittingly, Greg and his wife, Kathy, have their own foundation, which benefits a number of local charities. Kathy Maddux is currently seeking input from Jim Hammer to learn new strategies which will make their foundation even stronger.

Our own little boy, J.P., handed Cunningham a football to sign, and Randall palmed the ball like it was a chestnut. "These are my favorite footballs," he said, jokingly. "Nike Junior Pro." He then signed it and asked J.P. about his interests and goals in life.

Cunningham, who admits he got on the wrong path in the early years of his storied NFL career with the Philadelphia Eagles, is now an ordained minister leading a growing congregation called Remnant Ministries in Henderson. In just over a year he has built a Sunday following of more than 500 worshippers, and he expects to have more than 1,500 within two years.

"Las Vegas has been great to me," he says, "and I'm really enjoying giving something back to the community in the best way I know, with my faith."

Wouldn't it be nice if 30 years from now, my children and your children would look at philanthropy as second nature to them, as these good people do, and not just as a one-time reflex?

It would give a whole new meaning to the phrase "what happens here, stays here."

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