Record number of homeless Carson City children fill shopping carts at 14th Holiday With a Hero

The 14th annual Holiday With a Hero campaign culminated Wednesday in Carson City at Walmart after months of fundraising. At least 240 homeless children from across the Carson City School District met with Santa Claus before being paired with first responder heroes for a Christmas shopping spree.

At least 350 volunteers were on site including first responders and gift wrappers, as well as a lounge area where a local DJ spun tunes and played a movie for kids to watch. The inclement weather Wednesday morning grounded Care Flight’s original plan of delivering Santa by air. The big bearded man dressed in red came instead aboard a Carson City Fire Department engine.

“There’s a lot of kids out there that are in need," said Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval after he addressed the large crowd of volunteers and first responders before the event. “This speaks well to our community to want to do so much to help these families.”

Students grades pre-kindergarten through senior year in the Carson City School District's McKinney-Vento Students in Transition program, which assists homeless children in the community, are the beneficiaries of this year's Holiday with the Hero project. This fundraising effort was so successful this year that about a hundred 100 high school students were also given the opportunity to shop.

Homeless children are those living without permanent housing, including temporary shelters and motel rooms.

Bus loads of students are paired with a community hero — police, fire, military, school district or other public official who shops alongside a child on-on-one.

“When we get on each bus, the energy is electric. The kids are bouncing off their seats and rearing to go,” said Peggy Sweetland, special projects coordinator and McKinney-Vento students in transition liaison for the Carson City School District.

The children can buy anything that they want and their first responder chaperone helps them keep a running total as they shop, and give a little advice on how to budget their gift card.

“They are getting whatever they want. It’s easy to get one over on us and get what they want,” noted one first responder.

Any participant could see that while plenty of toys were making the baskets, many of the kids budgeted for warm clothing, shoes, school supplies and other important day to day items.

“It’s good to see him smile,” he added.

Nevada Army National Guard member, Sgt. 1st Class, Tresa Currie was wielding the cart for her shopping buddy. “We’re trying to find something for his sister now,” she said. “I think it’s an excellent idea, and I love doing whatever we can.”

During the fundraising campaign, donations were collected from companies, organizations, agencies and individuals throughout Carson City to purchase $100 Walmart gift cards for each of the children served by the program.

Carson City Sheriff's Office Sgt. Daniel Gonzales said the campaign met its goal to raise over $25,000 this year for the area's homeless children.

“We were able to extend it this year all the way to high school seniors,” he said.

The Carson City Sheriff’s Office sergeant was pleased by the outpouring of support from donors and volunteers.

“Every year amazes me on who actually shows up,” said Gonzales. “No matter how busy our day is, everybody donated their time to give back to the community.”

A fireman from Reno was standing beside him, “We even pulled people in uniform from Reno, he added. “This guy wanted to drive down from Reno to help our people.”

The event is a defining one because it reaches the community across the board, said Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong.

“You can take every walk of public service and business. Everybody is here kicking in for the kids and it really feels fantastic," said Furlong.

Holiday with a Hero, now in its 14th year, is hosted locally by the Carson City School District, Carson City Sheriff's Office and the Carson City Fire Department.

Other agencies involved in this year’s fundraising effort include the Carson City courts, Nevada Highway Patrol, Nevada Parole and Probation, Department of Corrections, Department of Forestry, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, Carson City Fire, East Fork Fire Protection District, Reno Fire Department, Bureau of Land Management, and Nevada National Guard.