LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Talking to Greg Weeks, who spent nearly 27 years on the Las Vegas Metro Police force, you won’t catch a whiff of ego or self-importance.
“Law enforcement became my career after a failed shot at being an airplane mechanic,” he recalled when speaking to KTNV-TV recently.
A law enforcement career stretching back to the early 1980s means Weeks has seen the city of Las Vegas grow.
"We’re a little faster paced, there’s a little more traffic, we have those growing pains that all cities do," he said, "but we’re still learning ways to overcome that, and deal with what we have to deal with now."
Speaking outside the Paralyzed Veterans of America office, Weeks explained how he and a group of other volunteers meets monthly to pack groceries for veterans in need. And it’s a lot of groceries!
"We will receive somewhere between 2,500 and 4,000 pounds of non-perishable foods, and we form an assembly line, and we’ve gotten good at it," Weeks said. "And we’ll come down here with 12 or 15 volunteers, and will start packing grocery bags, and once the bags are packed they go in the Paralyzed Vets van, or the back of my truck, and we’ll take them out to about 150 veterans who are in need of that support, and are nutritionally challenged."
Weeks and his family learned the importance of giving back to his community over his multi-decade career, and in his retirement, he has continued that work as the leader of Las Vegas Elks Lodge #1468, which focuses on giving back three-fold: veterans, kids, and community. The Elks Lodge goes back to the early 1920s in Las Vegas.
"We are a group of people who want to serve, and that’s one of our tenets, our cardinal principles, is charity," Weeks told KTNV. "So giving back is where we started, and where we continue every day. It’s part of the thread of our lives."
Beyond helping the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the Las Vegas Elks Lodge #1468 recently bought 200 pumpkins for National Guard families, back to school supplies and backpacks for the greater Las Vegas community, they work with Three Square Food Bank, and they buy pantry items for local youth centers.
Findlay Automotive Group honors Greg Weeks as its Vegas Stronger Champion this November, which coincides with Veterans Day.
"We at Findlay Automotive Group have heard a lot about what the Elks have been doing, and you’ve been around a very long time, so we thought it was worth highlighting you guys as our Vegas Stronger Champion," Jeff Giles of Findlay Automotive Group told Weeks as he presented the Elks Lodge with a check for $599.
"We’ve heard so much about what you’ve been doing with paralyzed veterans, and what a group that deserves our support," Giles added.
"This is a tremendous gift that you’ve given us," said Weeks, "this is a labor of love for us and especially the work we do with the paralyzed veterans, so we thank you for supporting us in our efforts, and this is going to go right back into the community."
The Las Vegas Elks Lodge #1468 was named the 2022 Community Supporter of the Year by the Paralyzed Veterans of America.
