Deacon Tom Roberts, president and chief executive officer of Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, gives a speech to volunteers prior to a free community meal at an unveiling ceremony for the newly expanded kitchen and food pantry at Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, 1501 N Las Vegas Blvd, on Oct. 26, 2016.
Friday, Sept. 28, 2018 | 2 a.m.
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One year after tragedy, Las Vegas is stronger than ever.
That’s according to the man behind the valley’s more than 20 community events to mark the nation’s deadliest mass shooting.
Deacon Tom Roberts, the president of Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, didn’t plan each event on his own. But as the vice chairman of the Las Vegas Victims Fund — which disbursed $32 million to victims, survivors and their families — and a clerical leader who has provided extensive counseling, Roberts has played a leading role in helping our community recover.
He spoke with the Sun Thursday on the valley’s resiliency over the past 12 months and how people here can get involved in this year’s wide range of remembrance events.
It seems like there are so many things people can do both before, during and after the day of the tragedy’s anniversary. Can you speak to how the events were set up?
The intent always was to create a number of things to remember the heartbreak and tragedy of 1 October and the hope and resiliency that has followed. We planned varying degrees of events and activities, some more reflective in nature like the prayer service (Oct. 1, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Las Vegas City Hall) and certainly the Remembrance Wall Dedication (Oct. 1, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Las Vegas Community Healing Garden). Other things are a bit more active, like coming to Catholic Charities to help with the meal (today, 9 a.m. to noon), to direct compassion and generosity to an environment like ours, where people need help and hope. The blood drive (Oct. 1, 7 a.m to 7 p.m. at the Las Vegas Convention Center) is certainly an active thing to do to give a part of yourself physically. The whole concept was to give people a lot of different ways to decide. The focus is on our locals: This is an event that affected Southern Nevada deeply, and all of us that call this home are still reeling from that. I know we want to be remembering the victims and the survivors and the thousands of people who were there, but frankly all of us in Southern Nevada were affected by that. These events and activities were designed to give people a choice, so they would have some decision on how they wanted to direct their remembrance.
How did you become the spokesman for these events and what does it mean for you to be the voice of #VegasStronger?
I’m very humbled and grateful to serve, it’s a great way for me to express my own feelings of sadness as well as hope and healing. I was the vice chairman for the Las Vegas Victims Fund, so I was involved in that process. We distributed over $32 million, all of which went to victims and their families. That was a very difficult thing to do, but a very important thing to do. I think probably because of that, MGM (Resorts) held a unity service right after the shooting for their team members, both here and across the country, and I participated in that; it happened a couple days after the shooting. Then they reached out with the (Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority) and asked if I could help out with this process. It’s very humbling to me to know that certainly Catholic Charities is at the heart of compassion. We’re here for all people and I’d like to say we don’t check religious ID cards at the door around here (laughs). Anyone that needs help and hope can get it, and I think that’s what this is all about.
One of the events benefits the Las Vegas Victims Fund. What function does that fund still have if all the funds have already been distributed?
Yes, the victims fund committee has been disbanded and the funds have all been distributed. But for the people who called or asked what they can still do, Metro Police has set up a scholarship fund and the Resiliency Center through Clark County has the Victims Assistance Fund that’s still helping people in the Nevada Victims of Crime Program. So there are a number of things that people can do that want to continue to support. Gov. (Brian) Sandoval is heading up the Memorial Commission, which is going to need some funds to maintain the permanent memorial. So there are still ways to directly touch survivors and their families through those type of donations to the scholarship funds and help create a lasting memory through brick and mortar through the remembrance committee.
Can you talk about the efforts of the community and outside the community in coming together over the last 12 months to support each other?
All of us who call Southern Nevada home know this is a strong, vibrant community. Those of us who have lived here for a while, a lot of people don’t realize the sense of community that Vegas stands for. It’s sad when something like this has to happen, for that awareness to be brought forward. But Las Vegans and Southern Nevadans stepped up in a big way right after the shooting.
I remember the morning of the shooting, going down to the site to help there with some counseling, hundreds of people lining up there to give blood. Hundreds of thousands of people that donated, I think the total count at the end was somewhere around 100,000 people gave to the Las Vegas Victims Fund. That was as small as $5 to as large as $3 million. It was humbling, the committee was very emotional both with the reception of funds and how many people donated from all over the world, frankly. We also heard the stories and read the letters and met with many victims and survivors and their families personally. Dozens.
I look back at that with sadness, knowing that some of those struggles are very real and very active. People are still reeling, many of them for the rest of their lives. Their lives won’t be quite the same. And I think Las Vegas will never quite be the same. But in a good way, it showed the color and the heart of Southern Nevada and Las Vegas, and that’s why this moniker that we’ve put forward is now calling it #VegasStronger. I think we are stronger and I think we’ll continue to be stronger. I think the community showed it can be resilient and it will move forward.
• • •
Las Vegas will host over 20 events from Sep. 28 to Oct. 5 in remembrance of last year’s mass shooting. Here’s a list of upcoming events:
How We Mourned: Selected Artifacts from the October 1 Memorials
Sept. 28-Feb. 24
Clark County Museum, 1830 S. Boulder Highway, Henderson
The Clark County Museum is hosting a new temporary exhibit that features a selection of the items left at memorials that went up at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign and other public spaces after Oct. 1.
Sept. 28, 9 a.m.-noon
Catholic Charities’ St. Vincent Lied Dining Facility, 1501 Las Vegas Blvd. North
Community members are invited to join us in serving food to the facility’s low-income population.
Sept. 30
Downtown Las Vegas
Beautiful Lives Lost Portrait Project
Sept. 30, noon-2:30 p.m.
JW Marriott Resort, 221 N Rampart Blvd.
The project will honor the 58 victims with portraits.
Dear Love: A Ceremony of Hope, Healing and Transformation
Sept. 30, 5 p.m.-7 p.m.
Guardian Angel Cathedral, 302 Cathedral Way
The interfaith service is open to people of all religious backgrounds.
Oct. 1, 6:30 a.m.-7:30 a.m.
Clark County Government Center, 500 S Grand Central Parkway
Clark County and Metro Police will host a sunrise remembrance with speakers, a choir and a multijurisdictional honor guard.
Oct. 1, 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
Las Vegas Convention Center, 3150 Paradise Road
The blood drive will be held in rooms N245-251 in the North Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center to honor those lost, injured and affected by the tragedy.
Hope and Healing Prayer Service
Oct. 1, 9 a.m.-10 a.m.
Catholic Charities St. Vincent Lied Dining Facility, 1501 Las Vegas Blvd North
Catholic Charities invites the community to a non-denominational Hope and Healing Prayer Service.
Oct. 1, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
Las Vegas City Hall, 495 S. Main Street
The prayer vigil will be held in the plaza in front of Las Vegas City Hall.
Oct. 1, 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
Las Vegas Community Healing Garden, 1015 S. Casino Center Blvd.
The city of Las Vegas in conjunction with the Get Outdoors Nevada is scheduled to host the dedication of a new remembrance wall.
Oct. 1, 10 p.m.-10:30 p.m.
Las Vegas Community Healing Garden, 1015 S. Casino Center Blvd.
Officials from the earlier Remembrance Wall Dedication will read the names of the 58 victims on Monday at 10:05 p.m.
Reception for Las Vegas Portraits Project
Oct. 4, 6 p.m.-7 p.m.
Clark County Government Center, 500 S Grand Central Parkway
Clark County and the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center are hosting an exhibit of portraits of the 58 victims who lost their lives in the attack.
Remembering 1 October: A Night of Healing and Community
Oct. 5, 5:30 p.m.-7 p.m.
UNLV Lied Library Goldfield Room, 3rd Floor, 4505 South Maryland Parkway
UNLV University Libraries Special Collections and Archives will host a free community event to observe the anniversary of Oct. 1. Panelists at the event will discuss their experiences from that night and share stories of how the Las Vegas community came together to grieve, heal and move forward.
For more detailed information, visit www.lasvegasnewswire.com/events/.
