Meli Calvo Pulido was born in Mexico City and immigrated to the United States with her parents and eight siblings. In 1975, at 11:00 p.m. she woke up to the Silver Slipper on the Las Vegas Strip. She was raised on Las Vegas’s 28th Street, where she helped her family and their neighbors by becoming the neighborhoods unofficial translator. The need to serve her community and the hardships faced by her family and the families around her translated into her work after she graduated from what is now Southeast Career Technical Academy.

Harry Mack (1902-1985) was a Southern Nevada businessman and a founder of the Jewish community in Las Vegas, Nevada. He came to Las Vegas in 1937 with his brothers Louis and Nathan "Nate" Mack. He invested in land and commercial properties and owned Main Auto Parts and a builders supply store. Mack and his brothers were founders of the Las Vegas Jewish Community Center, built in 1946, and board members of B'nai B'rith in Las Vegas.