Generosity Keeps Mesquite Vets Center Event On Track

By BOBBIE GREEN

The Progress

The Mesquite Veterans Center was bailed out of a whole series of difficult situations last month, thanks to the help of local volunteers and the tremendous generosity of a big box store in St. George, Utah.

The trouble began in the run-up to one of the Center’s biggest events of the year: Veterans Day.

In November the Mesquite Veterans Center held a special event called Vets meet Vets. A group of veterans who are running for political office in Nevada were coming to Mesquite for the annual Veterans Day Parade. They planned to drive the vehicles that carried local veterans in the parade down Mesquite Blvd.

After the parade a dinner was planned for all at the Veterans Center. On the surface, the dinner went off as planned and everything was fine. But behind the scenes, it was a week of misfortunes that almost derailed the get-together completely.

During the week leading up to the parade, the old refrigerator unit at the Veterans center was having troubles. It seemed to be working ok at times. Then suddenly, it would stop working. This caused some concern as the unit was needed to store the food for the meal. Veterans Center volunteers were on pins and needles in the week before the event, hoping that the refrigerator would make it through.

But that was just the start of the trouble. Volunteer Patricia Ress Kelly, who was helping out at the Veterans center while President Bob Nehila was ill with COVID, went to the local supermarket to buy the food for the big dinner. She had a letter with her from President Nehila stating she was there for the Veterans Center. The Center had customarily received a discount at the store, and sometimes even donations of the food, for their Veterans Day events.

Kelly gathered all that would be needed for the meal and headed to the the check-out with the letter in hand. But she was told that company policies had changed. Organizations were to apply 30-days ahead of time to receive assistance for a charitable event.
“I stood there, kind of shocked, not quite knowing what to do,” Kelly related of the awkward experience. “Then the lady behind me in line handed me $50 and said she would help pay for the veterans food.

Then the gentleman behind her spoke up and also gave me another $50 more to use for the food.”
“The Veterans Center and I want to thank these kind-hearted people: Carol Case and Arturo Reyes, who stepped up and honored our Veterans that day in (the grocery store),” Kelly added.

With that crisis averted, Kelly purchased the food. But upon returning to the Veterans Center she found the refrigerator completely broken down again. Worried about ending up with spoiled food or creating health issues on event day, she quickly began to call businesses and organizations in town looking for a place to store the food, or another refrigerator to use. She was unable to find a space in town to store the food for the dinner. And the Parade was still three days away.

As a final ditch effort, Kelly decided to call a Lowes store in St. George. She explained her desperate situation to the first person that answered the phone. That person listened carefully and then asked her to hold on a moment.

During the ensuing several minutes on the phone, Kelly spoke to a number of different people at the store, explaining the situation each time. The employees were clearly trying to help her find a solution to the problem.

Finally, she was told that the store’s truck going to Mesquite that day was completely full of deliveries. But if someone from the Veterans Center could come to St. George for a pick up, the store would have a brand-new Kenmore French Door Refrigerator and a chest freezer waiting for them, as a donation for the Veterans center; all compliments of Lowe’s.

Of course, Kelly was shocked at the generosity of Lowe’s in providing this badly needed donation. Two hours later the Center had their new appliances, thanks to local resident Steve Reynolds who went up to St George to pick them up.

“Christopher George and Brittany English were the two store managers (at Lowe’s) that worked on getting our Vets the new refrigerator and freezer,” Kelly said. “Many kudos to them from the Mesquite Veterans Center!”

“This was an enormous and valued gift for us,” Kelly added. “We have many functions involving food at the Center.”

There were a few other small complications involved in this year’s Veterans Day dinner, Kelly said. They involved the need to adapt to COVID food regulations that the center had not had to deal with before. Everything needed to be individually wrapped, even the hotdog buns.

But local buusinesses came to the rescue on this mini-crisis as well, Kelly said. Mesquite’s Valley Food Mart, and Carol Case who happened to be working there, provided packaged condiments and wrapped hotdog buns. Mesquite Walmart provided a gift certificate for the purchase of needed goods, and the Casablanca Resort provided packaged salad for the dinner.

Kelly also expressed gratitude to Robert Nehila, Peggy Pope, Clinttona Guest and Tilden Kelly for help in putting the Veterans Day dinner event together.