Silver Tapper Hetrick-Irwin selected as grand marshal

"Age is just a number, honey. I remain positive and never listen to the negative stuff. I truly believe in that."

Resident BJ Hetrick-Irwin, 90, said those words regularly to her dancing troupe, the Nevada Silver Tappers.

It appears that organizers of the 2015 Pahrump Fall Festival also share Irwin's feelings as the committee selected her to serve as grand marshal of this year's parade scheduled for 9 a.m., this Saturday.

The route begins at Highway 160 and Dandelion up to the festival grounds at Petrack Park.

This year's theme is the "Good Ol' Days."

It's the second time Irwin has been selected for the honor, but she said she made sure to not let it go to her head.

"I am very humbled and when I got the call I just screamed," she said. "I couldn't believe it because I was going to march in the parade with the girls."

Irwin said she pulled a practical joke on her fellow tappers when she told them the committee refused to let her march in the parade this year.

"I told the girls that I got a call from the fall festival parade committee and they won't let me march in the parade because I've just been selected to be the parade's grand marshal and they all just screamed," she said. "I'm very grateful and it was an honor it was to be selected."

Hetrick-Irwin started the Tappers in 1988, a year after moving to Pahrump from southern California.

She was traveling to Las Vegas regularly with her husband, the late Tom Hetrick, who was a contractor and traveled to Pahrump to secure his state contractor's license.

"I founded the Silver Tappers here in Pahrump when we were called the Nevada State Troupers," she said. "At that time I was hitting the casinos quite a bit in Las Vegas because I didn't have anything to do."

While reading the paper during that time, Hetrick-Irwin said the idea of returning to the art of tap dancing hit her like a ton of bricks, as the last time she laced up her tap shoes was decades ago.

"The only tapping experience that I have had was when I was little girl," she said. "I am not a professional dancer and we don't pretend to be professional dancers. That's how I got started."

Hetrick-Irwin's experience with working with her "girls" allowed her to start the Ms. Senior Golden Years Pageant.

Additionally, Hetrick-Irwin's efforts have earned her and her ladies numerous recognition and accolades, including the title of Pahrump's Official Ambassadors as well as the Golden Heart Community Service award.

"That was a few years back and it was a great honor," she said. "These girls work so hard for this community and they duly, duly deserve it. Every place we go, especially up in Carson City for Nevada Days, they know us up there and they're always asking us back but I'm not going this year and I made up my mind that I owe it to the town of Beatty."

Ever humble, Hetrick-Irwin gives credit where credit is due for many of the fundraising benefit shows the troupe performs in.

"The girls make me look very good and if it wasn't for them, things would be much different," she said. "Over the years we have raised roughly a quarter of a million dollars since 1988."

Even at the age of 90, Hetrick-Irwin said she can still keep up with some of the younger performers on stage.

"I am 90 years old and I can stay right with the girls," she said. "In fact they are the ones that get all sweaty and I am still cool as a cucumber."

Early next month, the troupe is scheduled to spend some time in a city where Hetrick-Irwin has never visited – New York City, where they will serve as the Ambassadors of Pahrump.

"The community raised the money because they knew that was on my bucket list and we are meeting with the Rockettes," she said. "They are going to take us on a tour of New York City and we hope to get in front of the NBC building wearing our banners that say Pahrump, Nevada."

As her second turn as the fall festival's Grand Marshal, Hetrick-Irwin said she learned a few things from her first experience.

"The last time I was grand marshal I nearly froze to death," she said. "The theme that year was 'the jesters' and of course I was wearing my little short skirt and froze my, you know what off. This year I'm going to wear my Hello Dolly outfit and if it's cold this year, I will definitely be warm in that outfit."