Welcome to Season of Hope, Nevada! Hope, Nevada exists to: connect people to the needs in our city raise awareness of hope happening in our city spotlight people/organizations bringing hope to our city (“candle lighters”) inspire listeners toward hope-filled engagement and action for the love of our city

This week we got to hear from Dr. Karen Gedney and hear her amazing story. Dr. Gedney is the Consultant in Prison Reform on the Ridge House Board.

As the Chief Executive Officer at STEP2, Mari is responsible for the planning, budgeting, staffing, motivating, and overall management of the agency. She wears many hats, ranging from managing the daily operations of STEP2 to writing grants and securing program funding.

SONV is dedicated to enriching the lives of children and adults with intellectual disabilities through inclusive sports, education and health. The 501(c)3 nonprofit organization offers free year-round training and competition programs for 3,253 athletes who compete in more than 60 competitions in 10 sports annually. On the playing field, SONV promotes inclusion through Unified Sports, bringing together athletes with and without intellectual disabilities to play as teammates. On school campuses, SONV impacts more than 62,000 school-aged students by promoting inclusion through the Unified Champion Schools Program, which encourages Unified Sports, Inclusive Leadership programs and Whole School Engagement. SONV is also committed to improving the overall health and well-being of individuals with intellectual disabilities through Healthy Athletes events, offering health screenings and services free of charge. SONV relies on the support of 4,766 volunteers and funding from individuals, organizations, corporations and foundations. In 2018, SONV honored the 50-year anniversary of Special Olympics.

This week we got to talk with Kimberly Weingartner who started the Katie Grace Foundation in honor of her daughter, Katie Grace. The Katie Grace Foundation was created to give back to people throughout the community as well as showcasing the beautiful characteristics of Katie.

This week we got to have a conversation with Misty Vaughn Allen, the Statewide Coordinator with the Office of Suicide Prevention.

After eight years in a very successful medical device sales career, Ryan decided it was time to become his own boss. In 2016, he started an in-home caregiving company in Reno called Amada Senior Care. It grew very quickly to the point that Ryan could barely keep up if he wasn’t hiring 20+ people a month. Ryan has built his business to be one of the top 5 franchises in the country out of almost 200 locations. After being in business for almost two years, Ryan realized that there was a huge lack of available dollars to help indigent seniors and veterans receive caregiving services they so desperately needed. Because of this, Ryan decided to start a non-profit organization called the Hart Foundation which raises money to provide free caregiving services to veterans and seniors who could not otherwise afford them. The foundation has achieved 501c3 status and will be a great resource to our indigent veteran and senior citizen community.

This week we got to talk with Angel and  Michael Sweazy about starting a Reno Chapter of Youth With a Mission.

This week we got to hear from the CEO of Veterans Guest House, Naureen Leary.

This week we got to have a conversation with Jocelyn Lantrip, the Director of Marketing for the Food Bank of Northern Nevada.