Wanna volunteer?
• WHAT: Clean the World and Las Vegas Sands disaster relief hygiene kit build
• WHEN: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21
• WHERE: The Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Las Vegas
• INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION: disasterkitbuild.eventbrite.com
What's in a hygiene kit?
• 3 oz. bar of recycled soap
• Washcloth
• Toothbrush
• Travel-sized shampoo, conditioner and toothpaste
• Inspirational note
Clean the World has come a long way from its 2009 start as a family operation.
Back then, founder Shawn Seipler used a meat grinder to break down bath soap in his one-car garage in Florida and turn it into new bars for disaster victims.
Today, Clean the World is an international nonprofit that collects soap and other toiletries from hotels and recycles them for people in need. And this year, it took more big steps forward, collecting its largest donation to date.
Las Vegas Sands, which since 2011 has recycled 50 tons of used soap with Clean the World, pledged $1 million to the organization. The money helped Clean the World buy the equipment it needed to set up recycling lines in Las Vegas and Macau.
“Previously, we had a facility in Las Vegas for warehousing the soap we collected,” said Seipler, whose group also works with Caesars Entertainment. “Sands gave funding to turn that facility into a recycling plant because previously everything had to be shipped to Orlando. Having the recycling equipment in Vegas saves on shipping and means we hire more people in Vegas.”
Now, Sands and Clean the World are putting on the biggest hygiene kit build in the group’s history, and they are looking for volunteers to help. The goal is to make 100,000 kits in one weekend. The previous largest build was 18,000, Seipler said.
Volunteers must sign up for a minimum of two hours but can offer more of their time. Assembly lines will be set up for volunteers to fill bags with toiletries, and they can leave a message or inspirational note on a card in the bag.
The kits will stay mostly in the Las Vegas area and western United States, Seipler said. The American Red Cross distributes them to families who have lost their homes in fires and other disasters. Groups that work with the homeless, veterans and women and children also hand out the kits.
“We operate in diverse locations — Singapore, Macau, Las Vegas and Bethlehem — and we wanted to do something that has relevance in each of the places we do business,” said Ron Reese, Sands vice president of corporate communications. “It’s hospitality related, and whether we are helping to support disaster relief for a typhoon in the Philippines or homeless veterans in Vegas, it gives us the opportunity to do that.”
To make the event more fun, Sands will have hourly raffle drawings to give away restaurant, hotel and shopping prizes to volunteers. Seipler said about 500 people have signed up; Clean the World hopes to attract 2,500.
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