Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Guest Column:

For Drai’s Beachclub team, memories of party for local kids will never fade

When most people think about summer in Las Vegas, one of the first things that comes to mind — aside from the sweltering heat — are pool parties and sun-soaked celebrations.

Although we see this nearly every day at Drai’s Beachclub, one poolside celebration this summer was particularly special. One afternoon, we traded champagne showers for a cotton candy bar, our bottle packages for a chicken finger and BBQ buffet, and our traditional partygoers with youths from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada.

Prior to the spring announcement of our employee-driven community give-back initiative, Drai’s Cares, we automatically knew that one of the organizations we wanted to partner with was the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada. With satellite campuses around the world, the organization provides a safe place for kids to be kids — something that is integrally important to the development of youths, especially for those who might not come from the most stable of homes or socioeconomic statuses.

Our entire vision for the Drai’s Cares program is to provide meaningful experiences and opportunities to those who can benefit from our services most, and what kid wouldn’t want to party 11 stories above the Las Vegas Strip?

After a quick briefing on the rules from our head of daytime security, the youths took the 11-story elevator ride up to the Drai’s Beachclub pool deck, where they were welcomed with complimentary towel service and 30,000 square feet of party space. It’s truly a sight to see when a group of kids are lounging in a private cabana pool with a slushie in one hand and a cotton candy cone in another — thank you to our friends at Spin-Spun for sponsoring a cotton candy bar throughout the day.

When they weren’t making a splash in the rooftop venue’s seven pools, the kids could be seen noshing from the kid-friendly buffet sponsored by our full-service gourmet kitchen, Drai’s Café, or found showing off their moves in front of the DJ booth, where our resident artist DJ Franzen was behind the decks. Closing out the afternoon, Franzen even hosted a dance contest where one lucky young man was the winner of a pair of designer headphones.

To be honest, I’m not sure who had the biggest smiles on their faces, the kids or our staff. We know that our employees enjoy their jobs, but I could clearly see that everyone was truly happy to be engaging with the kids — one of whom shared, “This is just like Disneyland!”

In addition to our partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs, we have been fortunate enough to work with incredible local organizations throughout the valley, including Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, where we engaged in a multiday service operation providing direct assistance to a portion of the area’s homeless youths, and North Las Vegas’ Arturo Cambeiro Elementary School, where our staff rallied to purchase and donate backpacks and school supplies for the entire 600-plus student population on the first day of school.

Throughout the remainder of the year, we are excited to have committed to partnering with The Shade Tree, a local shelter and resource for women, children and their pets who are victims of domestic abuse, and the Friends of Las Vegas Metro Police Department Foundation, the nonprofit charitable organization benefiting the brave men and women of the Las Vegas Metro Police Department — a group that assists our security team at Drai’s daily to oversee the safety and well-being of our patrons.

We here at Drai’s Las Vegas have been incredibly fortunate over the last 20 years to have had such unwavering support from locals and visitors alike, and we look forward to continuing to give back as much as we can.

Brian Affronti is managing partner at Drai’s Enterprises.

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