The Pahrump Valley Rotary Club is an organization dedicated to community service, touting the slogan, “service above self” and it is always actively seeking ways to help the community it calls home.
In a continuation of this mission, members of the local Rotary Club spent the morning of July 13 laboring to assist a disabled veteran in turning her house into a real home.
Pahrump resident Linda Bacon-Kendall moved into her new house in Cottage Grove Estates in October of last year and for the past nine months, she has been living with just a few sparse articles of furniture. Walking into her residence on July 13 revealed nothing more than a bed in her bedroom and just a couple of foldable metal chairs, a small table, and a television set in the living room.
The reason for the lack of furnishings wasn’t because Bacon-Kendall did not have these items. Instead, it was because she was caught between a rock and a hard place due to the fact that her belongings were in three storage units, for which she had to make rental payments. Making those payments put a strain on her finances but she had no choice but to continue to do so, as she simply couldn’t afford to hire a team of movers to transport her possessions to her home.
That was where the Rotary Club came in.
One of its members, Ellen Arntz, happens to also be a veteran and both she and Bacon-Kendall are members of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars. While at the VFW post one day, the two got to talking and Bacon-Kendall’s plight came to light. As soon as she knew what was going on, Arntz said she immediately wanted to help. Arntz went directly to the Rotary Club and the organization voted as a group to take on the moving project themselves, free of charge.
On one of the hottest days of the year so far, a group of generous Rotary Club members rounded up their personal trucks, trailers and SUVs and headed over to the storage unit where Bacon-Kendall’s possessions were stored, clearing out the units and hauling everything to the disabled veteran’s home.
Once there, they battled through the intense heat to unload everything and carry it inside, with every load bringing a more homey feeling to the once bare house. Cabinets, a second television, shelves, books, pictures, paperwork, chairs and tables, all the things that transform a simple building into a personal space called home, were finally moved into Bacon-Kendall’s residence and she said she couldn’t have been more grateful.
The Pahrump Valley Rotary Club is a nonprofit organization and is always looking to add more members to the group in order to better serve the community. Anyone interested in joining or learning more about the club’s efforts can visit www.pvrotaryclub.org
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com