Children’s community center to open in Pahrump

The site of the former Pahrump Boys and Girls Club will soon be the new home of a youth community center.

Carole Hardan, marketing associate for the project called the Pahrump Children’s Community Center, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) company, said she plans to open the facility at 2210 S. Rodeo Ave. in late July, for youth five to 17 years of age.

“The program will be after school until 7 p.m.,” she said. “It’s going to be a structured program, and we will have all kinds of games like basketball, crafts, karate and many other activities. We will also have programs that involve tutoring. It will be safe, secure and a lot of fun. There is nothing else like this program here in town because we will also have a mental health aspect to it, along with mental health counselors who will be available on site. Parents can have their kids come in for just one day or every day of the month.”

As the old Pahrump Boys and Girls Club has been empty for eight years, Hardan said the interior and exterior of the building needs improvements, while speaking about the costs associated with renovating the 3,000 square-foot facility.

“It needs to be refurbished, so DT construction is currently working on it,” she said. “The cost to complete the work is $54,000, which is about $30,000 more than our budget. We need to put in handicap access facilities as well as new floors and new carpeting. It was just a bunch of little things that really added up and ran up the costs for the refurbishment.”

To cover those costs, Hardan said she is holding a fundraising raffle.

“Construction has already started, so it’s a leap of faith and we are just going to count on the community supporting us,” she said. “The total value of all the raffle prizes combined is over $30,000, and I want to thank all of the businesses and organizations in our community who contributed raffle items for this program. We have all kinds of dinners and fitness and golf prizes. There’s definitely something for everyone.”

Additionally, some of the 24 different raffle prizes are of very high value, including the grand prizes, which are two diamond memberships valued at $15,000 each for the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute.

“We have two of those, and we will start the raffle off with the lower priced prizes and work our way up to the grand prizes,” Hardan noted. “The drawing will be held at our facility, but you don’t have to be there to win, because we will just contact them. You can pick up tickets at Peaceful Minds at 1710 Highway 160. The drawing will be July 9th at 7 p.m. at the facility.”

Hardan also spoke of other aspects the program will provide, including transportation and nutrition.

“If your child is on Medicaid, there are programs that you can get into which are no cost,” she said. “If your child is not on Medicaid, and they just want to come to some of the programs, the daily and weekly fees will be on a sliding scale, according to your income. We already have our staff in place and they are all bonded. Most of them are social workers who are working here locally and well established within the community.”

Though the project has been in the works since April of this year, Hardan said it took a bit of time to get the Nye County School District to actually lease the building.

“It also took some time to get the construction underway, and we are hoping to open up sometime in July,” she said. “We are definitely going to have a fall program for the kids from five to 17 years of age. This will be a year-round program with a very happy environment, and we will begin signing kids up in mid-July. We will have daily fees as well as weekly fees.”

A GoFundMe account for the Pahrump Community Children’s Center has also been established to assist with fundraising efforts.

For additional information on the Pahrump Children’s Community Center, call Hardan at 775-537-5659, or email her at chardanpcccnv@gmail.com

“We will be happy to speak with you and talk about what you can and cannot afford,” she said.

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes