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Meet Your Neighbor: Meet The Neighbor – Mark A. Matthews
By Callie Thomas
You’ve got to admire someone who has the ability to juggle many things in the air and still keep their wits about them. 89128 resident Mark Mathews is one of those enviable people. By trade, Matthews works full time for Clark County as a Supervising Systems Technician, and as he describes it, he supervises fourteen IT geeks that support nearly 5,000 computers. He is also the Chief Steward of the county’s Supervisor Unit for SEIU 1107. Although his job keeps him pretty busy making sure that all systems are go, he also volunteers his time to support a Las Vegas charitable organization as part of the county’s leadership role.
Matthews’ choice has been the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, the annual fundraising event in which he’s been the Operations Chairperson for the past eight years. What that means is that Matthews and the operations team are responsible for all the “stuff” that actually makes the race happen. Every detail from set up to tear down and everything in between falls on the shoulders of Matthews and the rest of the team. Signs: check. Stage: check. Food, banners, barricades, trash cans, sponsor expos, porta-potties, Nevada Highway Patrol, AMR medics, pace cars, survivor recognition; check, check and more checks add up on their “to do” list. It’s hard to believe that with a list that long Matthews would consider himself a self-proclaimed procrastinator… with controlled ADD. He said that he has procrastinated again this year, waiting just days before the May event to pull it all together, which he’s continued to do flawlessly. The rest of the time he enjoys other passions such as football, particularly the Pittsburgh Steelers as he’s originally from Erie, Pennsylvania. Mark Matthews talks about his role with the Komen Race, his yearly football tradition and a couple of things even his friends might not know about him.
How did you first become involved in the Komen Race for the Cure?
“The Leadership Forum (a program sponsored by the county for its employees) encourages team members to provide about forty to fifty hours of volunteer time with various local organizations. I had waited until the last month to do most of my volunteer work when the Susan G. Komen Operations Chairperson at the time talked myself and a friend into becoming Assistant Chairs and said it would amount to ten to twenty hours of volunteer time. His estimate fell a ‘little’ short, but eight years and hundreds of hours later, I am still procrastinating getting ready for the annual event. Incidentally, the Leadership Forum program not only introduced me to Susan G. Komen, but it was also responsible for me meeting the love of my life, Karen Cale-Powell, a native Las Vegan and reason for me staying in Vegas.”
The Komen event is a huge undertaking. Any experiences you’d like to share?
“On the Sunday after the race, you can pretty much find me sleeping about thirty-two hours straight. Actually, it is so wonderful to support the people that work so hard to help so many women and men affected by something they have no control over.”
Tell us about your other passion.
“I am a huge football fan. I’m also an avid sports better, so my girlfriend Karen and I started a Super Sunday tradition of going to a 6:30am mass at St. Francis de Sales and then going to the LV Hilton sports book to have a champagne brunch, place a few bets, then go to a local pub to watch the game.”
If you weren’t in your present career, you would be…
“A high school or college football coach.”
Tell us something you think your friends might not know about you.
“They’d probably find it funny that I worked for the Cleveland Browns and Indians for seven-ish years, even though I’m such a huge Steelers fan… and they’d want to know where I get my fireworks for our annual 4th of July extravaganza, but I’ll have to leave them guessing.”
