Foundation provided $10,000 to bring Vietnam moving wall to Pahrump

Pahrump’s Home Depot general manager saluted the efforts of all who volunteered their time to bring a replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall to the community during last month’s Fall Festival.

Mike Kline said a grant from the Home Depot Foundation was chiefly responsible for the traveling wall’s arrival at Simkins Park, where hundreds of residents paid their respects to the more than 58,000 killed or still missing from that conflict.

“We were approached by the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce to help bring the wall here,” Kline said following the event. “We actually got a $10,000 grant from the Home Depot Foundation for all of materials for the wall.”

Kline also said the project was completed with the assistance of Home Depot personnel who arrived from Las Vegas just days before the Fall Festival.

He noted that upward of 30 volunteers agreed to assist in the effort.

“We also got together with our district to make it a Team Home Depot event and we drew some people from the Las Vegas market who agreed to help out, along with our store. We were out there the first day with our district and the following day was just our store.”

Kline made sure to applaud the hard work by Team Home Depot to make the event memorable for attendees.

“Our Pahrump store was out there for two long days after we received the grant for all of the materials necessary to build the entire walkway and support structure for the wall through the Home Depot Foundation.”

Kline personally thanked two members of Team Depot who led the project.

“Our Team Home Depot captain, who is Tanilla Dreese, headed up that event and did a fantastic job with my Assistant Sales Manager Teresa Aukeman, to make sure everything got coordinated and got the job done.”

On the second day of preparing the wall for the event, crews from the Pahrump store worked into the evening as they put the finishing touches on the display.

“The Pahrump Home Depot store was out there until probably 7 p.m. at night putting all of the finishing touches, as well as repainting all of these stars on the walkway and getting everything all lined up until it was ready to go,” he said. “The $10,000 grant from the foundation paid for all of the materials, including the walkway and the lighting.”

Kline said Team Home Depot routinely assists with various construction projects within the community.

In June of this year, more than three dozen Team Home Depot volunteers completed an upgrade at the veterans’ section of Pahrump’s Chief Tecopa Cemetery.

Both Las Vegas and Pahrump personnel came together and constructed several pergolas on the grounds of the site to provide much-needed shade during special events.

The grant-funded project came about following discussions at a Pahrump Veterans Memorial Advisory Board meeting.

“We always try to help out veterans and that’s our main focus,” Kline said. “We installed the shade structure at the cemetery for various events. That was another $10,000 grant that we received from the Home Depot Foundation.”

In 2002, the Home Depot Foundation was established to provide assistance to local communities, according to its website.

Since that time, thousands of associates nationwide have dedicated their time working on Team Depot projects to help veterans and others in need.

Kline said similar projects are expected to get underway in Las Vegas later this year.

“We are going to be rehabilitating some homes for veterans and redoing some of the rooms at the Salvation Army for homeless vets,” he said. “We are talking millions and millions of dollars of grants given to help our focus on veterans over the years. Each store also does little projects for their communities and not just for veterans.”

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