HENDERSON (KTNV) — A local farmers market continued its mission to give back to our community this weekend.
Thanks to our community and our Channel 13 viewers, a U-Haul is filled with donations to our local TSA agents at Harry Reid International Airport, all organized by Prevail Marketplace.
I asked marketplace owner Nicole Hampton what seeing all the donations told her about the community.
"It tells me the city of Henderson community shows up when we need them, and they're very, very generous," she said.
Hampton organized the food drive for local TSA agents, many of whom continued their work at Harry Reid Airport during the partial government shutdown, going weeks without pay.
"Honestly, I feel terrible when they weren't getting their paychecks, and I heard the food bank was getting wiped out every single day," she said.
Hampton told me this all started with a call to the airport to see how she and her vendors could help.
"Making a difference isn't about donating $1 million or providing a massive service to thousands of people," said Beth Nicholas from Baking by Beth. "Every little bit helps."
Dozens of cans, pasta, dog food and more filled up a truck that was donated by U-Haul for the weekend, too.
"You saw one of my donors; he absolutely didn't want any credit for it," Hampton said. "They just want to do a good thing, they want to drop off, and they want to not be on camera and go home. Everybody's very humble about it, but they're happy to help us and help the community, and help the TSA workers."
Saturday at Cornerstone Park in Henderson was the second day in a row of collections — Prevail Marketplace spent Friday afternoon at Exploration Peak Park in Mountain's Edge, which coincided with our latest Let's Talk event in the southwest valley.
I asked if people saw the event on Friday's news and decided to come out on Saturday.
"Actually, yes there were," Hampton said. "It was really the ones this morning who started posting, telling people to come out to Cornerstone if they missed yesterday."
"I mean, these are people who came here to buy their produce or their bread, and some of them told me, 'oh I forgot, let me give you a $20 bill so you can go get something for us,'" Hampton continued. "It's refreshing; it's nice to see that people want to come together."
Hampton wanted to leave a message to the community as she looked at all the donations from the last couple of days.
"It's thank you," she said. "You guys show up when people need you, and I'm hoping we'll all do that if you ever need us. I just think it's great to show up and do what you can."
If you missed out on donating goods, don't worry. Prevail's organizers tell me they're taking cash donations through the weekend, and taking those to grocery stores to buy more goods before dropping everything off at the airport on Monday.
You can find details on how to get in touch with them HERE.
