Described as Las Vegas' very own Mother Teresa, Linda Smith is a champion for all people with disabilities and our guest this week on Nevada Week In Person.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

A Las Vegas performer who, as a model and dancer, became the face of Diet Pepsi, her life and purpose changed dramatically when she gave birth to a son with Down syndrome.

This gave her a first-hand experience of the discrimination people with disabilities face, and thus fueled her fight for disability freedom.

The former vice-president of philanthropy at Opportunity Village, she's an author, public speaker, and fundraising phenom.

Linda Smith, co-founder of the Christopher Smith Foundation, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-Thank you.

-So Christopher Smith Foundation is named after your son who had Down syndrome, lived until 40 years old.

Define what doctors first told you, which was?

-Give him away.

He will ruin your life.

There are "places" for kids like your son, Christopher.

Nothing wrong with you; go have another one.

-And this doctor actually described this as a blessing?

-This particular doctor, when Chris was born, described it as a curse.

It's like the worst thing that can happen.

This was back in the early '70s, when, you know, people were considered less than worthy.

And so this is what you were told.

-Yeah, I'm sorry.

I said "blessing," but blessing in that you have this chance to get rid of this child and perhaps-- -I see what you're saying.

Yeah.

It's almost a relief.

They come in and tell you there are places for this child.

And for a moment, because you're so shocked, you never expect that you're going to have this child.

For a moment, maybe you consider, oh, there's a way out of this.

-Did you?

-I did.

I considered throwing my child away, and, you know, and I wouldn't go look at him in the bassinet.

He was not the child that I was anticipating and expecting.

And then you see this helpless little child that nobody wants.

Then you're told, He's not going to live very long anyway.

So I need to find a way to accept him into my life and love him for this short period of time that I have with him.

Then you spend the next six months or a year hating yourself that for a moment you didn't want that child.

It's very confusing for parents of a child with a disability.

And you know, I talk to parents.

They've all lived that same story.

My story isn't really unique.

There's some unique aspects to it because of how he was born in another country.

But-- -Let's talk about that aspect, because it was part of a big fight that you pursued.

He did not have US citizen status because he was born in Toronto, almost on a plane heading to Toronto, born early.

-Yes.

I was flying to Canada because we were entertainers, and we were going to be-- I wasn't appearing, my ex-husband then was going to be appearing there.

-Christopher's father?

-Christopher's father.

And I wanted to go ahead and sort of line up a doctor.

I went into labor on the plane.

And the plane landed.

It almost landed in Chicago.

There was an emergency on the plane, which was me.

We had the option.

The pilot said we could land in Chicago or we can go direct to Toronto.

We went to-- and by the way, there were 75 doctors on the plane.

It was a junket flight, a medical junket flight.

So had Chris been born on the plane in American airspace, he would be an American.

But anyway, the plane landed in Canada.

Three hours later, he was born at North York General in Toronto with Down syndrome.

And that took us on a journey to try to get him legal status in the United States, because the laws that existed at the time, which haven't changed an awful lot, but the laws basically said people exempt from entering the United States as permanent residents are, number one, criminals; number two, "retarded people" was the language.

Yeah.

-When you learned that, what did you think?

-It was shocking.

It was shocking to think that an entire country-- this was my baby.

Our home was in Las Vegas, and he wasn't welcome in the United States.

And then when I looked at the Canadian immigration laws, thinking, is this the United States?

Do other countries feel this way?

Canada's laws were even more archaic, citing people exempt from entering Canada as permanent residents were, number one, morons, imbeciles, and idiots.

That was the language.

So it was shocking, one, to have a child born with a disability.

You're entertainers.

You overcome that, and you fall in love with this wonderful human being, and but then you can't take him home.

-I want to take a step back, because Christopher's father was a well-known Canadian entertainer.

You met him in Canada as a dancer.

How did you meet him, on a show?

-I was on a nationally televised show.

I was the lead dancer on the television show, and Glenn appeared on the show.

I thought he was kind of cute.

And so we met when he performed on that show.

And then three years later, we got married.

And then three years after we were married, I became pregnant with Chris.

So I was going to continue being an entertainer, yeah.

-And you were a self-taught dancer.

-I was a self-taught dancer.

-Why?

At what point did you think, dancing is my route, and I'm going to teach myself?

-I think overcoming-- if you read my books, "Overcoming Adversity," I was born in England into an abusive situation.

My father was a pervert, and we escaped to Canada.

We were homeless for a while.

I was one of those kids.

I was homely, I had freckles, I had nothing going for myself.

I was that kid, the quiet one in the back of the class with dreading going home.

Home was a place that the Salvation Army was providing for us in Canada.

And I don't know, something just struck me at some point, I can't be that person.

And I was very young when I finally-- and there's a story in my book of this realization that I was not going to be pushed around anymore.

And so I, I don't know, if I didn't do it myself, it was not going to happen.

I remember standing in front of the television set trying to dance, watching people dance.

But I had a natural ability, it turned out.

And at age 16, I became a dancer.

I became a model.

-And the face of Diet Pepsi.

-And eventually the face of Canadian Diet Pepsi, yeah.

[laughter] But thankfully, Chris was born to me; otherwise, I would be just right now, I wouldn't be on your show.

I would just be an old dancer with no story.

But Christopher came into my life and changed it for the better.

-You've written three books?

-I've written two, and I'm in the throes of the third one, probably the most difficult.

I could raise a billion dollars, right, for charities?

Writing a book is one of the hardest things I've ever done.

-And those books can be purchased on your website, and all of that money goes to the foundation?

-To the foundation.

When Chris was ill in hospital-- and we had relied on caregivers over the years to help, lovely caregivers.

And you know, I'm watching program service people with disability organizations and certainly at Opportunity Village and appreciating them.

Being in the hospital and seeing the nurses, how caring they were to Chris, we just had another revelation that Christopher must live on.

We knew he was dying.

And we need to find a way to thank these wonderful people out there who are the most underpaid, undervalued people are caregivers.

So we, right in that hospital room with my little Chris, said, you know, Let's form this foundation, the Christopher Smith Foundation.

The books I wrote, 100% of the proceeds go to that foundation.

-And how neat that you have distinguished that nonprofit, that foundation and its purpose, from Opportunity Village, which is a huge part of your story.

So in Las Vegas, when you discover Opportunity Village, what was at stake?

How long ago was that?

-Oh, my gosh.

Chris was just a little baby, and I actually started volunteering at Opportunity.

I was part of a group called Celebrity Wives, and we did these little fashion shows for charity.

And one of them was Opportunity Village.

And that was actually right before Chris was born, I was doing that, and then Chris was born.

And I'd already been introduced to Opportunity Village, which was a little struggling organization in a small warehouse downtown.

And when Chris was born, I realized that that was his future, but it was not a place that I wanted Chris to go to.

And I don't know, somehow his birth changed me into this crazy fundraising mom who was not going to say no.

You know, my mantra became, No is not an option, because people can't live like that.

And started building Opportunity Village into the amazing world-class organization it is today and creating phenomenal events.

-Like the Magical Forest.

-Like the Magical Forest.

-Underway as we speak.

The tree lighting ceremony for it, recently you were surprised with what?

-They named that campus, the home of the Magical Forest, they named it for Christopher and me.

So it's now the Magical Forest is at the Linda Smith and Christopher Smith Family Campus of Opportunity Village.

-That's off Oakey.

And for those who don't know, Opportunity Village provides, I think the slogan is, pride of purpose and a paycheck?

-That's right, yeah.

-Okay.

Correct order.

But tell me and tell our viewers who are unaware what it does, what Opportunity Village does.

-You know, it's, it's a-- it's a wonderful respite for family members.

Your child can go there at age 18.

They're going to give you job training, job coaching, help you find a job in the community.

And if you're not eligible, like my son, Christopher, was not able to hold down a job.

He was intellectually a two year old for most of his life.

But provide work for him to do.

So Chris was-- I remember bringing in my shredder from home because he liked to shred paper, and that was the catalyst for-- we became the second largest document destruction business in Nevada.

So my Christopher became a document destruction specialist at Opportunity Village, and he loved that.

He didn't quite get the concept of a paycheck.

On his first paycheck, he shredded it.

[laughter] So we got direct deposit and moved on.

[laughter] But it's this wonderful place.

It's a wonderful community for people to be where there are folks like them and they're accepted.

-Vocational training, people that are putting together some of the, I think, like care packages that we see in hotels.

-Yes.

So many opportunities for businesses to have their business done at Opportunity Village and provide work for people like my Christopher.

-Linda, we're running out of time, but you mentioned that you raised more than half a billion dollars for Opportunity Village.

You are credited with revolutionizing nonprofit fundraising, and there is a line describing one of your books.

It says, "Behind the glitz and glamor of the Strip, she produced charity events and concerts for a cherished disability organization, learning the job of fundraiser among millionaires, mobsters, and city movers and shakers."

What was it like interacting with mobsters, trying to get donations from them?

-I was just a mom, so I feel everyone can give.

Every single person can give.

And I, you know, realized really early on, if you don't ask, you don't get.

And so there wasn't anyone that I wouldn't consider going to.

And it rings true today.

I've never felt like I'm a beggar.

I never felt like I'm just this fundraiser asking for something.

I feel like I'm giving you an opportunity to do something important in the community.

And if the community doesn't support people with disabilities, you know, it would be a less wonderful place to live as far as I'm concerned.

-Linda Smith, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-My pleasure.

Thank you.

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