Desert Tortoise workshop and Fill the Bucket Truck drive this weekend

This weekend holds events for fun, education and a school supply drive.

The Tortoise Group, a Las Vegas-based nonprofit will hold a Desert Tortoise Adoption workshop from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, August 3 at University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, (Annex building, south-end of parking lot) 1651 E. Calvada Blvd.

The workshop will cover the habitat and care of domesticated tortoises. The organization is seeking to adopt tortoises abandoned from private backyard breeders who have lost habitat due to the death of a spouse, foreclosure or relocation of the caregivers.

There will be examples of adoptable tortoises, space requirement, feeding and disease prevention.

More Desert Tortoises exist in captivity than do in the wild and the animal is on the endangered species list.

For more information on Desert Tortoise adoptions please call Janina @ 702-374-3967 or visit the website: www.tortoisegroup.org and start filling in an adoption form.

Valley Electric will hold its annual school-supply drive in the Fill the Bucket Truck event.

Each year the utility takes up a collection of supplies before sorting and delivering them to the schools in its service area.

This year five locations will be available for donations.

Threadz Clothing Store on Loop Road and Pahrump Valley Auto Plaza will take donations of school supplies only.

Walmart, Albertson’s and Smith’s can also take donations of cash.

The event runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Aug 2.

Sanders Family Winery will host DejaVu, a dance and show band at dusk in the courtyard of the winery, 3780 E Kellogg Road.

Tickets are $15 and the gates open at 6 p.m. for free wine tasting. Attendees are invited to bring a picnic or snacks. Wine and other beverages will be available. Call 727-1776 for reservations.

The Stagestop Lounge and Casino will host a benefit for graveyard bartender Ronda White, who just had surgery for thyroid cancer. The event will help with expenses while she is off from work.

A 9-ball tournament starts at noon with signups until 1 p.m. The cost is $10.

A spaghetti dinner is also planned and there will be raffles. Live music will be provided by On Target.

The event will run from noon to 8 p.m.

Plan for the Aug. 9 Pahrump Valley Museum lecture at 1 p.m. The guest speaker will be Roy Mankins, who will be speaking about his experiences with the nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site and the interaction with Pahrump.

Mankins has been in Pahrump since 1954, where he grew up farming and then working at the family business, Mankins Corner. The business was the local gas station, country store and cafe located at highways 160 and 372.

Mankins went to school at the original Manse School on Wilson Road and attended high school in Shoshone. He achieved a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management from UNLV.