Denise Arceo retires from Pahrump Valley Auto Plaza after 20 years of service

After working as the service advisor at the Pahrump Valley Auto Plaza for 20 years, Denise Arceo, aka “DeNice,” is hanging up her service department hat, and starting the next chapter of her life as a retired person.

After selling and servicing cars (almost exclusively Chevys) for 38 years, this former native of Simi Valley isn’t just going to be satisfied spending her golden years with her two young grandkids or gardening, she will continue to be more involved in volunteering her time in the community she loves.

Denise, along with her husband George, have always had a very strong sense of community and volunteerism since moving to Pahrump in 1999. As Denise puts it, “When you’re involved in the community, you’re involved in Pahrump. When you’re not, you’re going to be an outcast looking in on stuff.”

“When you’re involved, you find out all kinds of things that are happening. You find out about this car show here to support this or, they’re having this bake sale…” she continues, explaining how her enthusiastic willingness to give her time for worthy causes brings her closer to the community and the people in it. And she’s not above asking her, now former, employer to contribute either.

“Anytime there’s somebody that needs some kind of donations for fundraisers, Greg [Greg Meir, the general manager] and Steve, my service manager, are always great with giving out oil changes and that type of stuff,” says Arceo.

The first year the high school football team had their spaghetti dinner and cake auction fundraiser, Arceo knew that Tamara Trudeau was making and donating a cake for the auction, so she approached her general manager, and asked for a donation. “I wanted to buy the cake and say, ‘Look, Pahrump Valley Auto Plaza bought Saitta Trudeau’s cake,’” laughs Arceo. “It was just a fun thing with us.”

The Arceo’s support of local high school sports didn’t stop there. When it appeared that the booster club was going to shut down from lack of volunteers, Arceo energetically took control of it and ended up running it for many years, organizing various strategies like sales from merchandise and food and beverage to earn money for various high school sports.

In 2008, the high school cheerleading team was going to be canceled because of no coaching staff, so, again the Arceos answered the call to action. “My husband [George] was cheer head coach, and I was the assistant coach, because they couldn’t find anybody at that time, and they were going to shut down the whole thing and we didn’t want to see that happen,” says Arceo. They coached for one year until a replacement coach was hired.

“My youngest [daughter] was in cheer and I knew how much that means to kids. So, we didn’t want to see it just go to the garbage site. We were like, ‘OK, we’ll figure it out,’ and we did.”

Arceo’s philosophy on life is, “Live it and enjoy it every single day. Even if you have customers or situations that are frustrating, take a deep breath and know you’ll get through it.”

Pahrump Valley Auto Plaza is located at 2060 E. Charleston Park Ave. and is open 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday.

John Clausen is a freelance reporter living in Pahrump.