As we’ve become accustomed, the annual Sonoran Resorts Las Vegas Night for Charity, held on the 4th of July this year, brought fun for hundreds of partiers and funds to make the going a little easier for several local charities.
After four years, with so many repeat attendees, our event has taken on a jovial reunion atmosphere of old friends celebrating life, participating in
authentic casino games, vying for a share of the hundreds of really nice prizes, meeting new friends while taking the opportunity to help the friendly Mexican citizenry of this little slice of paradise by the sea where thousands of expats love to call home and thousands more love to visit.
Air conditioned comfort inside the Los Volcanes ballroom of Sonoran Resorts beachfront Sky Resort Condominium was the perfect venue to spend a 4th of July evening while outside the weather was sweltering.
Award winning chef and restaurateur Ramón Ramos of Cocina de Ramón and more recently Mariachis and Tequila
restaurant fame laid out a delicious buffet and made snacks available all evening.
The gaming tables sparkled with political and business leaders, celebrities and personalities from both sides of the border. Among those deserving 
special mention was the venerable Arizona Republic columnist, Art Sloane who volunteered to deal at one of our Blackjack tables.
Charity events are nothing new to Art. For 14 years he brought five to seven bus tours annually to Puerto Peñasco, all for charity. In addition, he always asked the groups to bring schools supplies which he distributed to local schools with
Barb and Mark Olszewski and helped them found the nonprofit Adopt-a-Classroom that today provides school supplies to thousands of students in 13 schools and the fire department. Art still sends down wheel chairs, crutches and walkers for charity. Those are just some of the reasons Art Sloane is honored in the Hall of Fame for Charity.
Mentioned above, Mark and Barb Olszewski are two of the
charitable personalities who have attended virtually every Las Vegas
Night helping to collect prizes, sell tickets and whatever else has needed to be done to make this night one of the most anticipated evenings of the year in our town. But both Mark and Barb are content to fly beneath the radar of recognition for all they’ve done to help the community for the last 20 years, so we’ll suffice with mentioning them as among the notables in attendance on July 4th…. And also because Art Sloane was their house guest while he was in town!
The list is too long to single out everyone we should who were in attendance
and having fun at Las Vegas Night. Most of them have been to most of the four events as well.
No one will disagree that among the dozens of volunteers who helped
put Las Vegas Night together, we really, really need to throw a shout out to a couple from Tucson who have been nothing less than an integral part of the success of this event since day one of its concept. He is the guy you’ve seen every year in the white tuxedo shirt and silk bow tie hosting, announcing, auctioneering, assuring that everyone was
aware of every aspect of what was happening and going to happen throughout the
evening, and before the event he was the one who trained the cadre of volunteer 
dealers. That individual, to whom we are deeply grateful, is Randy Van Hulle, owner of Ace Casino Rentals of Tucson since 1987 with casino expertise developed from serving well over 3,000 corporate casino functions. Together with his wife, Linda, who always volunteers as a dealer, the couple love Puerto Peñasco and obviously love what they do as a career. Thank you Randy and Linda for making Las Vegas Night 
such a success!
Those of you who could not make it down for the 4th of July weekend this year, please mark your calendars for the first Saturday in July next year, July 2nd (still on July 4th weekend) so you don’t miss out on this phenomenal night of friends, fun and charity.
In next month’s newsletter we will have all the details on the funds raised and to which charities they have been allocated. Stay tuned!
This blog is powered by www.sonoranresorts.mx, Jim Ringquist, Director of Sales and Marketing.