Calypso Night raises $2,500 for Meals on Wheels

A local program providing daily meals for the valley’s senior population received a financial boost this past weekend.

The Inspirations Senior Living facility hosted Calypso Night to benefit the Pahrump Senior Center’s Meals on Wheels program on Saturday.

The Caribbean-themed event raked in more than $2,500 for the program.

Pahrump Senior Center Site Manager Anne Blankenship said the Meals on Wheels program has seen a big influx of elderly clients in the past six months.

“The senior center says that they have increased from around 70 deliveries a week to 110 per week with a waiting list of another 15-20 clients. The program supplies seven meals per week for each client. The meals are prepared at the senior center daily and flash frozen. The meals are delivered once a week and are microwavable. The program provides one meal per day for those seniors in the valley who are unable to cook for themselves and are medically unable to go to the senior center for their congregate lunches. These folks are “homebound” and in some cases this meal is the only hot meal they receive,” she said.

Inspirations Community Marketing Director Tonya Brum said proceeds from the event surpassed her expectations.

“We had so many donors that were involved and assisted us. Everything that was displayed for the raffle were all donated. The response from the community was wonderful. They knew it was such an important issue and it is such a serious problem,” she said.

Brum also said the event would not have been possible without the assistance of local sponsors.

“It was Inspirations Senior Living, Comfort Hospice Care, Desert View Hospital and Nathan Adelson Hospice. Everybody worked equally as far as selling tickets and getting the word out. Inspirations is a brand new senior living community for independent, assisted and memory care residents,” she said.

The Pahrump Senior Center is a 501(C) (3) organization that provides nutritional, and transportation services for the 60 and over senior citizen population of Pahrump.