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TOP: Chris and Laura Chapel mushroom tomato sauce tied together began Casa de Luz after an with a bow and offered them to the incident they call "spaghetti faith." woman—who started to cry. That very the CasaMIDDLE: Ubanchi, one of kids supported by the day she had asked her daughter, whose Greater Good Council, at Vegas Roots Community Garden. birthday it was, what gift she wanted to pray for. The girl had replied with something she knew they couldn't afford: spaghetti with mushroom sauce. And when the girl saw that her prayer had been answered, she began to cry, too. Diana Bennett, daughter of casino pioneer William Bennett and one of our city's most accomplished executives in her own right, told this story at the first meeting of her new Greater Good Council and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. The pastor was Chris Chapel, who, with his family, has since established Casa de Luz, serving the people of Naked City. Here, Bennett describes how she got involved, rolling up her sleeves and partnering with organizations like Casa de Luz that are reaching out to those who need assistance and changing lives, one box of pasta at a time: "A little over a year ago, Julie Murray of the Moonridge Group held a philanthropic gathering. When the day was over, I called her and said, 'You got us all so excited about doing community work, but it left us wondering, What next? Where do we go from here?' My friend Kris Engelstad McGarry called with the same request, so Julie gave us the opportunity to found what is now the Greater Good Council. "The Council has about 20 like-minded people. We decided that we wanted to find a project that needed a group like us to help get it done—something that, —DIANA BENNETT without this group, was not going to get accomplished. "There happened to be a project called Casa de Luz that sits in the inner city. It feeds a lot of people, gets drug traffickers out of the neighborhood, helps children after school, and helps young girls get out of sex work. It was doing marvelous work, but it was going to go away because the building had been foreclosed on. Half the building was already condemned because the roof leaked so badly and was unsafe. Julie and I went by to look at this building, and she said, 'Do you think this could be our project?' I said, 'Absolutely.' "At Casa de Luz, Pastor Chris Chapel has permission to get kids from school and bring them home because their parents don't do it. They have no other place to go, which is just heartbreaking. There is a very poignant story about a little boy who showed up at Casa de Luz during school hours and said to Pastor Chris, 'My brain is on fire. Daddy won't let me in the house. He just said, "Go away.''' The boy's dad wouldn't let him in, yet the school had just sent him home. Pastor Chris felt the boy's forehead, and he was burning up, running a fever. Chris was able to take him in, give him a place to lie down, give him something to make him feel better. "Chris's wife, Laura, rescued a young woman from sex traffickers in a public restroom in a park. She pulled the young woman out of the bathroom and saved her, took her back, and made sure she was protected. "Very few apartments in that area have washers and dryers, so they rent continued on page 52 "Las Vegas is filled with people who want to volunteer, to do good things." BELOW: Chris Chapel, Kris Engelstad McGarry, Bennett, Julie Murray, Steve Evans, and Councilman Bob Coffin at the Casa de Luz groundbreaking. VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 51 050-052_V_SP_SpiritofGen_Sum13.indd 51 6/17/13 12:02 PM