Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

Wesley Knight 0:00
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Speaker 1 0:42
what's going on good

Dave Washington 0:47
day Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington. Your host. Got a few words to state to all, and then we'll have a couple of guests on on this week's show. First of all, I want to express condolences to the family and friends of poets. Miss Nikki Giovanni. She transitioned just the other day. She is now an ancestor, a good sister, very, very talented, very talented poet, and we got a daughter, Angel. Angel's a gifted writer. So anyway, condolences to her family, and then also condolences as well for the family of Lonnie Carter, his services will be on 1228, so they'll be later on this month. And I forgot the actual location, but I'm sure you can look it up. Lonnie Carter, long time, Las Vegas, good guy. We'll miss Lonnie, and hope that God will be pleased with the work that Lonnie did while he was here on this earth. Uh, holidays, of course, Merry Christmas to all who celebrate Christmas, and certainly happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanzaa, those are three of the major holidays that will be coming up, uh, throughout this month, in terms of birthdays. As a long time friend. He's deceased, been deceased for a number of years, but his daughter, Sharla. Sharla sent me just a reminder. Willie Clyde, Janell, His birthday is this month, so to his family, we still miss that brother, very, very good man and a very dear friend. In fact, on New Year's Day, Willie and I used to go around and make a few stops throughout the community, but I miss doing that with that brother, also one of our granddaughters, well, two of our granddaughters, Amari, her birthday is this month, December, Nala at the end of the month. And then our dear friend Faye, Duncan, Daniel, her birthday is this month. And I'll tell you a little bit more about Faye and an excursion that she happens to be on, but I don't want to mention that over the year at this particular point in time, considering this show is heard throughout the world, to include down in Helena, Arkansas. So anyway, I don't want to specifically say that, Oh yeah, Kaiser as our grandson, which I did mention last week, but his grandmother's making sure that I mention it again. She's always in the control room over there with Wes telling him to tell me something to do as she drinks her coffee. I won't even name the name of the coffee place that she's seen to be enjoying over there in the control room, Tony Marshall. He's our service officer. I apologize I'm sitting up here talking about Tony, and I know I got his number at hand somewhere, and I don't have it at hand, but I apologize Tony Marshall, y'all know I've given y'all his number many, many times. Tony is our service officer. He has a couple locations wanted, at the VA hospital and then at the veterans community center, also down in for north, north Las Vegas, uh, also uh later on this month or early next month, we'll have a former Assemblyman, Winn Williams, back on the show to talk about the activities that we're coming up for the Martin Luther King committee functions coming up in January. So with that, once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I am Dave Washington, as I mentioned, your host, and shortly, we will have Miss Cynthia mercy. She is the president of the Valley View golf club. Hey, Miss Cynthia. How are you well? How are you doing? Doing well, doing well. Perfect timing. So Cynthia, give our listening audience a little bit about you. Who are you and where are you from? Cynthia.

Speaker 2 4:22
My name is Cynthia Murphy. I was born in Toledo, Ohio. However, I grew up in Illinois, in the suburbs of New England. My father was one of the first black cross country truck drivers, and so he got a job in Chicago. And so we moved from Ohio to Illinois, and then as an adult, I lived all over the city, South Shore, north side, west side. And so that's where I started.

Dave Washington 4:46
Okay, so how long you been in Las Vegas? Now been in

Speaker 2 4:49
Las Vegas 14 years. I'm a retired fellow employee. And so when I decided to leave Virginia, which is where I retired from, I decided to come west, and I. Wanted to be where the weather was good, so I could enjoy my passes year round,

Dave Washington 5:07
where she would enjoy this I know more she wouldn't, but I played golf with Cynthia several times, and if somebody get a birdie, we take a shot of us. That's right. Peach Schnapps, it's fun times out there. Fun times with with Cynthia. That's a perfect segue Cynthia into. Who are you the President of and what do y'all do? Okay,

Speaker 2 5:29
I am, you know, Golf is a passion of mine, and so I am the current president of Valley View golf club. Valley View was established in 1955 and I'm proud to say that in 2012 we were inducted into the Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame as the oldest established African American club in Las Vegas. And I'm also proud to say that our junior golf coach, Jim Hart, who was part of them as part of Valley View, long before I came along, was inducted last year in 2023 for his unwavering commitment to coaching youth in the community. And so today, now we're having, this is the end of the year, and so at the end of the year, we go through our recruitment for new members and also the renewing of past members. So if you're interested in golf, you can check out our website, which is Valley, view golf indeed.com, and on that website, you'll see the history of the club, the officers, our membership form, our shirts, where you can order them, and our contact information.

Unknown Speaker 6:33
So if there's any

Speaker 2 6:36
Julia golfers that might be interested in golf, you can contact Jim Hart direct at 702-521-8537.

Dave Washington 6:45
Yeah. Jim has done a wonderful job with that group. In fact, I know you got a number of those young youth golfers that operate and have done some things on the on the regional level. In fact, won a few of those tournaments, if I'm not mistaken that

Speaker 2 7:00
for you know, our our junior golfers, we have about a half a dozen who are competitive. Last year was a big year. Last year was a big year for us, because last year they made it to the National Junior PGA Junior tournament. And which was, which is really significant, because the the colleges are there watching these kids. And although our kids were too young at that time, they were 15 at that time, they couldn't talk to school, but the schools are watching them, which creates opportunities for them to get scholarships. But we have some very good players who are very good, very competitive, and sometimes they come out and play with us, and they're playing with the scratch golfers. They are that good, but they started out as some of these youth in the community, and that's just to say that for any kid who gets exposed, the possibilities are endless. The possibilities are endless. Well,

Dave Washington 7:55
we salute Jim. In fact, I need to get him on the show sometimes to go into even greater detail about the junior golf program, because I know that there have been a number of youth who have come out of that and gone on to play golf Junior Bell. I remember many, many years ago where he became a national championship, which, think it was South Carolina State, if I'm not mistaken. I remember seeing him one time, and he had on his little ring. So I ran home because our daughter went to Southern University and they won the, I think it was a swag championship, whatever it was anyway, as a trainer, she got a ring. So she had her ring dedicated to her papa, since me and her mom was paying that tuition. You know, even just she got a partial tuition thing for being a trainer. But I went home, and also Frank Hawkins was up there with his little ring on. So I went home and got my ring, and I was flashing it all over the place at 7c we you ain't been nowhere. You ain't been nowhere. I said, Man, my daughter went to Southern University, and she gave her dad her ring. So check it out. And mine was bigger than it, even though I think ours is, well, nothing is so Chronium, that's that fake, when the real Dave was like that, like, there's where that's right. And I just showed my butt. I showed out So Cynthia, tell us about Now you mentioned again your website. Please mention it again, because I think one of the things that I want to help from this platform is that we grow that organization in terms of because we need some younger folks involved. And I'm not talking about the junior program. I'm talking about folks who are over that Junior, you know, age group, but certainly young men and women. We don't we want this organization to continue to be around. And as you mentioned, it started with back in their 50s and

Speaker 2 9:40
55 that's right, and 55 Our website is Valley View golf, nv.com Valley View golf, nv.com if we're always open for people, sometimes people think that they're not really sure what it entails, but just come out and. And and see what we do and then and be a part of it. There are people who I have met who say, Oh, I'm not good enough to play, but let me tell you, we have a game for everybody. We have scratch golfers when we play in a local tournament. Part of this western states consortium, our scratch golfers win. We have leads golfers like me that are double digit handicaps, but enjoy and have a passion for the game. And we have a game for everybody. We have prizes for everybody. You don't have to be a stress golfer to win, because it's all based on handicap the levels of play. So you can come out and feel comfortable playing with anybody and still have an opportunity to win something at the end of the day. And basically we have just a pot, and the pot is shared. It's not like, you know, a match gambling pot, it's a pot. We even have a hole in one pot, and holding ones are not by skill. They're by luck. That's right.

Dave Washington 11:03
I remember Cynthia. Cynthia, I remember when I first started, I got a hole in one at Las Vegas Muni, 92 yards with an eight iron. Today I will put the eight iron in the street. It was 92 yards. They say you got a hole in I said, Yeah, right. Go check it out. I went over there. It was in there. Oh my goodness, man. And you know, my wife, she started out, she tricked us all daughters. Bought a set of clubs for Mother's Day. She bought four or five new outfits, and never played again. Well, she did go out a few times. She went out with Dana love before he passed, and she said, You know, I'm not I said, Let's go hit some balls. I'm not going out there and hit the balls and I don't know what I'm doing. Keep Why would I practice doing the wrong thing? But Dana love he had this 13123, approach, some kind of way when you swing your club. And she was, she was pretty accurate with it, but she's a fair weather golfer. If it's not I probably, she probably played between 79 to 8283 degrees before anything before that or after that, she ain't gonna play. Is too hot or too cold? I'm like, woman please. But anyway, I'll try to get it back out there, because I think it'll be good for outside of just that dance thing with the with the fancy dancers, they do their little thing up at, uh, well, what is it, uh, Pearson center every Monday and Tuesday. But anyway, Cynthia, I'm so pleased that you will get on tell us about what's coming up in 2025 for Valley Bucha. 2020

Speaker 2 12:25
25 we're going to be planning more local chips like to Utah and to mesquite. We play all over the city. I mean, there isn't a club we haven't played throughout the city, but we're going to do some of that. But the other thing you know, because we are part of Western States Golf Association, they have an annual tournament in Birmingham, Alabama, and in the past, it's always been held in the West. And so last year was the first year we went to Birmingham, and those people really welcomed us. It was a large turnout all of the many of the golf clubs. And this consortium had members represented Valley View. We had about nine members that went, which was a good showing, and it was we had some winners in it, but it was a good opportunity to go go east and meet some people from the East who wanted to even play in our tournament, and played in our tournament to bridge this gap of East and West, but also just to expand our horizons. And I think that we will be continuing to do that, to try to go to other places, not just on the west, because it just it's a different environment. But my theory in life is this step out of your comfort zone, do something different. When you do something different, you learn a lot. All

Dave Washington 13:44
right. Well, we appreciate that, and I agree with you 100% in fact, looking forward to one day I can get to moving around, because, in fact, I've been clear to start golfing again, but I'm gonna wait to January. So once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. We had Miss Cynthia mercy. She is the president of Valley View golf club here in Las Vegas. Thank you, Cynthia. We appreciate you, and we'll get you back on again to give us further updates about the club. Thank you

Unknown Speaker 14:10
for having me, Dave, once

Dave Washington 14:21
again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more, my daughter April suggested that I make contact with Miss eatman to talk about a program that she has. So I let her introduce that program, and we'll have some conversation with her, about which I've been familiar with the program because she's been around for a number of years assisting folks throughout our community. How you doing? Ma'am, go ahead and give us a rundown on who you are and what you're up to. This

Speaker 3 14:49
is Joyce eatman, so glad to be here with you. First of all, thank you for having me, sure and I am. Joyce eatman, the president of lace, the nonprofit, or. Organization. We're about 32 years old this year, and out of the lace program about 15, between 15 and 16 years ago, we created a project called grants for grants, and what we do with that program is assist grandparents that are raising their grandchildren and perhaps struggling with it. Now, not all grandparents, of course, that are raising grandchildren, are in need of help, but there are many that need a helping hand and need a little help until they can get situated to this new lifestyle, and that's what we are here to do. The program is called grants. For grants, we grant those families small monetary gifts and to buy household items, other things that they may need to help the the family to function.

Dave Washington 15:58
Now go back, if you would, you say it came out of the lace program, give us an indication about that. That was that I call it the mothership. So give our listening audience a little indication of what that program was all about and is about,

Speaker 3 16:11
all right. Back in april of 1990 lace was formed, and lace is the acronym for ladies advocating Christian entertainment. Well, way back then, what we were doing were producing musicals, concerts, fashion shows, different programs where families could come and have entertainment together, right? And so we did that for years. And what happened? It was a November and we were getting ready for our first musical, and what we asked the participants to do was to bring a non perishable food item. We were going to take those items and make food baskets for families in need. Now this was for any family or individual that needed help at during the holidays because of non sufficient food supply in their household. So we went on doing that for, I tell you, about 1012, years. And instead of just doing it for that Thanksgiving holiday, it developed into a full time food pantry, and so there we were, with doors open five days a week, assisting families and individuals that found themselves in need of emergency food assistance. I tell you, the mission is the same today as it was then. The method, of course, have had to change. You know, how we assist the families and how they find us and the needs that they have and why? But I tell you, we're still hanging in there, and I get pleasure and joy out of letting people know that we have never received a government grant,

Dave Washington 18:10
just the people of people assisting you. You know what? What is your inspiration? Because I always like to know when people doing the kind of work that you're doing. I just feel as though something inspired them to do that. They don't just do it, something internally, externally, but something drives them with that passion to do what needs to be done for those who are without

Speaker 3 18:31
yes, you're absolutely right. And what happened? I am a retired casino dealer, and I was working at I was dealing as a lady luck, and I had been there, I guess, about 85 days, because I'm waiting for my probation period to be over the 90 days. So I go into work. I've got a 13 year old daughter that I'm supporting. I go into work, and myself and 12 other dealers were called into the casino manager's office. We had been laid off. They said, laid off. Okay, so now, what do you do? You can't we're looking around. Okay, we're going to look for another job. And you know that process you go to apply for unemployment? Well, it took some time to get started, and I went looking for help myself. But what happened? All of the places that I went to, I didn't qualify because I was going to be getting unemployment, or I didn't qualify for this, this reason or the other. I was so upset about that. I'm like, Well, what do you do when you just need a helping hand? You just need help for a moment. And I got real upset about it, and I'm going, God, something needs to be done, and somebody needs to do something in the Spirit say, Alright, get busy. Don't don't complain about it. Do something about it. I'm like, Well, what can I do? You see, I'm out here looking for help myself anyway. So I did get together with some entertaining friends that I knew, and that is when we started thinking about doing this concert and and this musical situation for families. And it kind of evolved out of that of me at one point needing help myself and couldn't find it and and that's kind of how it evolved into being there to help people that needed immediate help back in the day. Go ahead. I'm sorry No, go ahead back in the day, you know, if you applied for food stamps. You didn't get the stamps today or tomorrow. You had to wait, and you had to qualify, and there was some red tape. Well, man, if you're hungry today, three days from now, you could drop dead from starvation.

Dave Washington 20:53
Well, one thing I love about that you said, Look, don't be whining. You know, go about, be about it. Go, go, do something. I love that, and that's what Julie has to happen. You know, you can talk about things, but if you're not willing to put some, as they said, some sweat equity into it, nothing will happen in many, many cases. So we admire the work that you've done over these many, many years, and really appreciate that. So you got a website

Speaker 3 21:20
I trust. Yes, we do. The other thing I would just like to make known is that all ever since the very beginning, we got our state charter in 19 april of 1991 and so our staff has always been volunteers. Nobody has ever gotten a paycheck. We never had a payroll. And even when we have a brick, had a brick and mortar place. The help was people that care about others, right? And that is still how it is today. So I would just pray that this call would do two things. First of all, I'd like to make people that are I'd like to make people aware of the fact of who we are and the service we render, so that if there is a grand family, as we choose to call them, or someone that knows of a grand family that needs help for the upcoming holiday, then we'd like to give them a number to call, and when we say, Help, I don't want somebody calling that has registered with three or four organizations, and you've already been approved, and you're getting food and toys for the kids. But if you don't have anything and you have a genuine need for help. We can help, and we will help, and that is what we want to do, help those grand families that are in need. And so if, by chance, there's a grand family listening, or, you know, of a family, I'd like to give a number, if that's okay, phone number where they could call and we could get them pre registered, because there is still about maybe another week that they can pre register. Sure. Yes, please get it okay. Alright, that number is 702-861-7920 that's 702-861-7920 so they can call that number to pre register for Christmas gifts last year, God bless us, to have 100 brand new bicycles. We had toys, we had gift cards for the families, and we pray that it'll be a little better this year. You know that those families that are in need of help will be able to find help. And I also pray that some of your listeners, and I know that there are some listening that care and share and want to all of our finances are generated through contributions, donations and fundraisers. So we are conducting a fundraising campaign right now. And so those of your listeners that are listening that can't help that number is 702-861-7920,

Dave Washington 24:12
well, one thing I can tell you've been around the block a few times. Miss Joyce. You don't have to be prompted. You know how to go out there and get it? No, we admire the work that you're doing, and I will encourage my wife to maybe talk to her fancy dancer group. Maybe they can, if not this year, maybe down the line next year, they can offer up, because they do it. They do a lot of work within the community as well. They don't just be down there, okay, at Pearson, you know, dancing and doing their thing, but they also get out and do some work within the community itself. So we certainly, and you mentioned that you don't have a physical plant now, and if my memory serves me correctly, because many, many years ago, we were you on Miller. Yes,

Unknown Speaker 24:55
for a moment, we've been all over town.

Dave Washington 24:58
Yeah, I thought. Because we had that old fire station there, and they had the city. Had given it to the United firefighters of Southern Nevada. We had it for a number of years. Before this, we gave it back to the city. And I'm thinking you were right along there on Miller Street somewhere, maybe on another street, but I just recall, I do recall something about your organization back in the day. And that's

Speaker 3 25:22
and I tell you another location that was our home. We had a suite there at the Moulin Rouge, one of those storefronts. We were there, yeah, we were right there until the bulldozers came. They bulldozed all around. We were one of the last to leave with Reverend uh, Sam Roberson had the Christian bookstore. Oh yeah, and and we were right next to him, and baby, we weren't going anywhere until they just knocked us down.

Dave Washington 25:51
Yes, indeed. So we really appreciate you coming on air and again. Give the give your website again, and your your number, because we certainly want people and to you veterans out there and others who are listening, please consider making contact to the website or and or the number and make some kind of contribution, because I think it's a very worthy cause. Thank

Speaker 3 26:12
you so much. The website is the same as the project name. It's grants, G, R, a n, t, s, as in free money, the number four grands, as in, grandparents, G, R, A, N, D, s.net, so that's grants for grands.net. That's the website. And then if it's easier for you all to give me a call, call me at 702-861-7920, 8617920, that's 702-861-7920

Dave Washington 26:48
we certainly appreciate your time and effort, and again, we wish you Godspeed and good health and all that you continue to do, not only in 2024 but 2025 and beyond, because there's always a need in our community, unfortunately, but we, we are blessed through God's work that we have people like you to step up and take that on. And you say, Get busy about it. Do something about it. Don't just be talking about it. I love it. So we thank you so much for your time, and we look forward to doing what we can to assist in any other time during a year, or don't be afraid to reach out to me. You got my number now, okay, and we'll get you back on and promote other things that you're doing in this community, because I think it's so important. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus, and I know when Wes gives that certain look, it's time to wrap it up. So thank you, Miss Eastman. Take care of yourself. All right. This is Veterans Affairs plus, very much sure, affairs plus on 91.5 chairs and more. Hey,

Outro Song 28:17
all the smoke in the air till they hate when they stare all the pain that we bear, all you bear.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai