LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Faith. Food. Family. Football.
That was the focus of Saturday's Hey Neighbor event, which was hosted by a campaign called He Gets Us, a movement to raise the relevance of Jesus Christ in modern culture.
More than 1,500 people attended the event at LV Reach, a community center that serves some of the most socioeconomic disadvantaged areas in Las Vegas.
Families were able to get tasty meals, courtesy of Wahlbergers and The Salvation Army, groceries, and run through football drills with celebrities like actor Taylor Lautner, TV host Jason Kennedy, and social media influencer Jimmy Darts.
Kids also got to test their skills against former and current NFL players like Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson, Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Mack Hollins, and Indianapolis Colts defensive end Jacob Martin.
"Some of these kids are legit. One of the little girls, she bodied that bag over there. I was like oh! Wow! She popped right back up," Martin said, with a grin. "I was like oh. That's cool. It's been awesome. The kids are having a blast."
Saturday marked a milestone for Martin: his first time in Las Vegas for football.
"I have yet to play at the new stadium against the Raiders. You couldn't ask for a better spot for the Super Bowl. This town was built for it."
He looked back on his time growing up and said his favorite football memories also revolved around the Super Bowl.
"Any time we had the chance to watch the Super Bowl as a family or with family and friends, a get together at someone's house or the church, it's always good fun," Martin said. "Football and the Super Bowl and all those things bring families together whether you're rooting for the same team or not. Football just has a way to transcend through different communities, different religions, different backgrounds. It's a melting pot, a way of bringing people together."
Veteran and Las Vegas local Alfred Green Jr. agreed saying these types of events bring people together but also connect people with resources they need or food, which is getting harder for some families to do as inflation causes prices to go up.
"It means a great deal. For some of us, we take advantage of having food all the time but a lot us, in certain neighborhoods, we don't have food. It means a lot to me to come down and see people get a meal that don't have meals sometimes, for them to have fun, to bring their children down here, and experience something nice," Green said. "I've been seeing all around the city, the way the NFL and Raiders have just been helping people and it means a great deal to everyone in this city. It not only brings happiness to people who have money to be able to experience things on the Strip but they're doing a lot of stuff outside of it."
For Jason Vanderground, the President of BrandHaven, which helped put the event together, seeing families come together and showing their neighbors some love was why the event was created.
"When you have something in common and you start doing it, I think a lot of times you can look past your differences. I think what we're facing this year is a very divisive year again. It's an election year. There's so much where we're upset with each other, angry with each other, and what we're trying to do is give people common experiences where they can realize we might have differences but there's a lot of good that we can do together," Vanderground said. "Just looking at these kids out here, the smiles on their faces. You put a football in a kid's arm and their entire face and body language just changes. To see them being able to run sprints against an NFL player or to throw passes or to kick field goals, to do high jumps and compete against their heroes and to have fun doing it. To us, that's what it's all about."
