Best of the Week: Showing Up for Las Vegas

Las Vegas makes room for more than one kind of perseverance. In this week’s featured stories, it appears in a veteran finding connection on a trike ride, a neighbor assembling a thoughtfully stocked hygiene kit, and a small-business owner protecting time for her family. The common thread is not a grand promise. It is the decision to keep showing up.

For the week of October 5, our spotlight brings together Peter and Kelley Guidry, DeeAndrea Casaus, Bryanna Green, and Shine City Project, alongside two calendar picks: Plant N’ Sip and the Pacific Legacy Tattoo and Art Expo. Each offers a different view of how people build a life—and a community—with intention.

Peter and Kelley Guidry: Connection in Motion

For Peter and Kelley Guidry of Forgotten Not Gone, the mission began with their own experiences of pain and isolation after military service. Finding relief through adaptive recumbent trikes helped turn a personal path toward recovery into a way to support other veterans.

Forgotten Not Gone’s Veteran Trike Brigade and Women Warriors program bring movement and peer connection together. The equipment matters, but so does the person riding alongside. As Peter explains in their interview, “We get them outside, moving, riding beside other veterans and reconnecting naturally.”

Their story reminds us that support is more than an introduction or a referral. It can mean listening, staying present, and making sure someone does not have to take the next step alone.

DeeAndrea Casaus: A Business Built Around Balance

DeeAndrea Casaus of Mama Bear Fudge brings that same consistency to a very different setting. Her approach to running a small business combines creative work, customer care, and clear boundaries around family time.

With orders resting on her shoulders, she keeps them written down and organized. She also protects Sundays from fudge-making, preserving space for her family rather than treating every available hour as another working hour.

“Success to me right now is being consistent and making our customers happy,” she says. It is a grounded definition of progress: do the work well, keep people at the center, and grow in a way that leaves room for the life behind the business. Her longer-term ambition is to become financially successful enough to give back to the community.

Bryanna Green: Dignity in the Details

For Bryanna Green of GivingBackLV, meaningful community work starts with understanding the people it serves. Her interest in homelessness and systemic inequality developed into a commitment to direct support and public education.

GivingBackLV’s Hygiene Recovery Initiative aims to work with Las Vegas hotels to collect surplus linens and hygiene products for generously stocked kits. The details—including handwritten notes—reflect Green’s belief that assistance should be personal and respectful, not simply measured by volume.

Her interview also describes a changing definition of success: helping one person, listening to one story, or making one day brighter can matter. Alongside the Guidrys’ emphasis on presence and Casaus’s commitment to consistency, Green’s story points to a shared lesson: care becomes tangible through repeated, deliberate actions.

Community Spotlight: Shine City Project

Shine City Project carries that outward-looking spirit into its mission. The organization seeks to encourage selflessness, develop leaders of heart and character, and nurture compassion for others while practicing environmental stewardship.

Its vision is a more loving and caring Las Vegas community. In a roundup shaped by personal connection and everyday responsibility, that mission offers a fitting community counterpart: positive change depends on how people treat their neighbors and the places they share.

On the Calendar

[Plant N’ Sip](/events/plant-n-sip-uh2m6) takes place on Saturday, October 10, from 6–10 p.m. Pacific at Rooting For You in Las Vegas. The event provides the materials for a botanical creation, with an invitation to bring a friend or a date for a relaxed plant-focused outing.

[Pacific Legacy Tattoo and Art Expo](/events/pacific-legacy-tattoo-and-art-expo-9ypby) is a longer-range calendar pick, running November 13–15 at The Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. Its program brings together tattoo artists, cultural practitioners, live entertainment, artisan vendors, food, and traditions from Polynesian, Pacific Islander, Asian, and Indigenous cultures.

These featured stories do not describe a single route to success. They show several ways to contribute: ride alongside someone, create with care, offer practical help, or build a more compassionate community. What connects them is a willingness to turn good intentions into something another person can feel.