Rotary provides families a warm meal, gifts

A warm meal, good fellowship and gifts were the order of the day for Pahrump Rotary Club’s Giving Day on Sunday.

Several dozen deserving families were selected this year to take part in the event at the Bob Ruud Community Center.

Local resident Duane Thompson was joined by 4-year-old Aiden Kucher.

Thompson, a foster parent, said the celebration was great for all of the families in attendance.

“This is a great event that they’re doing here,” Thompson said. “There’s a lot of kids that might not have much of a Christmas to begin with.”

As the father of a foster family household, Thompson said Giving Day was an additional holiday themed event for the entire family to enjoy.

“We have three kids that we just got recently and they’re enjoying the festivities and having a great time,” he said. At home, all of the decorations are set up. We have the inflatables outside that they love and we’re all ready for Santa Claus.”

Rotary Club President Roy Mankins said Sunday’s annual event routinely puts a lot of smiles on the faces of both children and their parents.

Many of the families selected for Giving Day were referred to the Rotary Club by various local organizations.

“We had a bunch of very happy families and children,” he said. “It makes all of the work worthwhile. We started this annual tradition about 15 years ago. We gather up disadvantaged and underserved in Pahrump to make sure they have a nice Christmas, a good hot meal and something they can enjoy to help make life better for them.”

Additionally, Mankins said another local organization partnered with the Rotary Club to help set up for Sunday’s event.

“The whole place was decorated by members of the Kiwanis Club who did a great job and they also furnished the face painters,” Mankins said following the event. “It was really a pleasure to have Kiwanis join us this year.”

Rotary Projects Chair, Dina Williamson-Erdag said Sunday’s event took a lot of planning among Rotary members.

“We’ve been working on this for about six months,” she said. “This is one of the biggest events that Rotary works for. All of our fundraisers are geared to make this happen every year.”

Rotary member Dr. Tom Waters actually made a request to Santa Claus while attending Giving Day.

“I just asked for good weather and good health.” Waters said.