County officials express appreciation to All Lives Matter teens

The Nye County Board of Commissioners presented certificates of recognition to the two teens who organized Pahrump’s recent All Lives Matter rally at the sheriff’s office.

Rosemary Clarke Middle School teens Jacob Lopez and Andrew Avena sought to gather 1,000 area residents to attend the event, but both were satisfied with the more than 300 who showed on Saturday, July 30.

Due to school obligations, the teens were not able to attend the presentation, but their grandmother, Anita Yunker, accepted the certificates presented by the board on Tuesday morning.

“Their mom said they are not missing school,” she said. “I am so very proud of them because they are good kids. These two truly wanted to do something to make a positive statement.”

Yunker also said she was surprised at the amount of people who attended the rally.

“I was there and I was just shocked because there are times where it’s very hard to get a gathering,” she said. “It wasn’t a very pleasant day because of the heat, smoke and clouds but we are grateful that so many people came out. I bet that if it was clear, we would have had a very major turnout.”

The teens organized the rally after watching the images of violence toward law enforcement agencies around the country in recent weeks.

Posted on their Facebook page, Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly, on behalf of the entire sheriff’s office, thanked the boys for their altruistic efforts in supporting all sheriff’s office personnel.

“As a whole, we would like to thank Jacob Lopez and Andrew Avena for planning and organizing this great event on their own because it was a spectacular achievement,” the post read. “We would also like to thank the more than 300 members of this wonderful county who took their time on a Saturday to come stand literally hand-in-hand with other community members and our deputies. In doing so, they formed a human circle around our deputies.”

Additionally, the sheriff’s post stated how pleased deputies and detectives were at the show of support from the community.

“The deputies who were privileged to be there, were extremely grateful for the show of support, the hugs, the handshakes and the kind words of encouragement,” the post stated. “In a time when the country is riddled with controversy, Nye County proved once again that this is a great place to live. Thank you to everyone for the great support.”

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