After helping more than 850 families with Christmas gifts over the past decade and inspiring similar efforts elsewhere in the country, members of the Las Vegas chapter of the historically black Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity held their 11th annual boutique with a Kappa giveaway over the weekend to bring holiday cheers and fight food insecurity.
Children received $100 gift cards and food parcels including eggs, granola and lunch snacks to help families through the break.
“We know that for every gift we give, for every smile we put on these kids’ faces, we know that’s one more household that won’t be stressed out this holiday season,” the commissioner said. of Clark County. William McCurdymember of Kappa Alpha Psi who represents District D, where the event took place.
This year, McCurdy saluted and Pastor Clayton Moore of the Second Baptist Church led a prayer, as children and families lined up in the Super Walmart parking lot on the Westside of Las Vegas, waiting for their chance to make shopping with a member of the Las Vegas Strip.Vegas Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
The event featured music played by a DJ, snacks, activities, and local fraternity and sorority members dressed in red, white, and Greek regalia. Families have been invited to participate in the giveaway by local organizations such as The Diamond Foundation (a youth scholarship charity), Nevada Natives (a nonprofit Native organization), and New Era Las Vegas ( a national grassroots organization created in Detroit, Michigan), or selected through an application process.
“We know that with inflation and high unemployment rates, people are deciding whether they are going to be able to buy food or buy toys for their children for Christmas,” said Sebern Coleman, spokesperson and president of Shop with a Kappa Las Vegas. “[This year] we’re like, well, why not do both?”
The annual “Shop with a Kappa” event, which takes place across the country, was started by the Las Vegas Kappa Alumni Chapter in 2011 by member and former police officer Rod O’Neal.
O’Neal said he mirrored the event after the “Shop with a Cop” events that erupted in the Northeast Valley during his time on duty and felt he had to go there. have the same service in predominantly black neighborhoods. He said it was important for black professionals to serve young black children during the holidays.
“I used to partake in the shop with the cop [event]”, O’Neal said. But when you look at the program, I would not see us represented. I saw four or five black children and for me, it was not enough.
O’Neal and Coleman said the first events started with about 22 children from the 89106 ZIP code, but the event has since branched out over the years, adding children and families from all over the Las Vegas Valley. It started in an area where the average median income is $25,000 a year, half the median household income in the state.
“Many of our people who are in the brotherhood grew up in the [89106] region,” Coleman said. “A big part of why they even wanted to get into the fraternity – to begin with – was to be able to give back to the community.”
O’Neal said chapters across the country are participating in Shop with a Kappa, including Anchorage, Alaska, Tacoma, Washington, Chicago, Illinois and Miami, Florida, to name a few. some.
And it all comes from here in Las Vegas, he said.
The Las Vegas chapter raised $14,000 for families, while nationally, chapters raised approximately $1.5 million to help families over the holiday season.
The local Kappas were the biggest contributors to the Las Vegas giveaway. Other major donors include the Nevada State Treasurer’s Office, which donated $2,000 to the cause, and MR Whitsett Inc., a restaurant franchise inside Harry Reid International Airport which donated $5,000 worth of food.
On Saturday, new parents Janene Newell, 22, and Frederick Bailey, 20, lined up with their 3-month-old baby Sayori Bailey for a $100 gift card. They said the aid would increase their budget for essentials such as nappies and other necessities.
“She likes to pee a lot,” Bailey said.
The event brought together more than 200 people, including prosecutors, education professionals and retired police officers, who helped kick off the pre-Christmas giving season. The children came from schools such as Matt Kelly Elementary and Kermit R. Booker Elementary, and organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club or Boys Town, representing the spaces touched by the fraternity’s philanthropic arm.
Kappa Alpha Psi has a long history of service in the Las Vegas Valley, with a legacy of black firsts from fraternity members, beginning with Addeliar “Dell” Guy, who became the first black judge of the District Court of the state in 1957, to Jason Frierson, who became Nevada’s first black United States Attorney in 2022. The Las Vegas Alumni Chapter was established in 1964.
“It’s community service at the highest level,” O’Neal said. “A lot of times you give to other civic organizations, whether it’s the Red Cross or whatever, you donate. But you can come here, and this is where the rubber meets the road.
According to Coleman, some families return each year, and the organization can see the children grow as they participate. Sometimes children join the organization’s youth group and then continue with the group to college to pay as future alumni.
“At the end of the day, we want people to successfully contribute to society,” Coleman said.
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