Rotary rakes in the dough at $10k Extravaganza
This Sunday, the Pahrump Valley Rotary Club hosted its highly-anticipated $10,000 Extravaganza and while one lucky ticket holder walked away $10,000 richer, it was the community that was the true winner of the night. A fundraiser at its heart, every dollar raised at this event is destined to make its way back into the community via the Rotary Club’s many philanthropic programs.
The $10,000 Extravaganza took place October 11 inside the Saddle West Showroom, which had been decked out in patriotic flair for the 2026 theme “Celebrating USA”. Red, white and blue balloons floated above tables decorated with patriotic napkins, table runners and American flags and among the crowd, the colors of the USA were prominently represented in everyone’s dress. There was food, silent auction items to bid for, entertainment by a local youth dance group and of course, the most eagerly awaited moment of the night, the drawing for the $10,000.
“The Extravaganza was very successful,” Pahrump Rotary Club Past President Barbara Thompson told the Pahrump Valley Times afterward. “It was a wonderful event. The Saddle West Showroom has been overhauled and it’s just beautiful. There was lots of room and we were so pleased with it. I think it looks really nice and it worked really well for us.”
Thompson estimated attendance at between 150 and 175 guests and the winner of the big $10,000 was Michael Alvarado, whom Thompson noted is a local resident.
“We made a little over $2,800 on our silent auction and $785 on 50/50, which I won! That was exciting - I never win,” Thompson said with a laugh. “We don’t have final numbers yet but all together, we’re looking at coming in right around $20,000. And this funding is going to finance all of our projects for the remainder of this year and into next year.”
There are many programs and initiatives that the Pahrump Rotary Club plans to tackle in the coming months, the first of which is a reinstatement of one of its previous programs – wheelchair ramps.
“We’re going back to building wheelchair ramps again, we have our first build coming up this month. It’s been about a year and a half since we’ve done a wheelchair ramp but we’ve got some old members together and we’re going to give it a shot,” Thompson explained.
The Rotary also places a heavy focus on supporting education, both through students and teachers.
“We do teacher mini-grants and applications for those are coming in now. We do scholarships for the high schoolers, too. We have our ‘Together We Read’ program, as well, which is something we’ve developed for all of the Pre-K students in the Pahrump area – we provide them with a book bag, four age-appropriate books, an activity packet, crayons, pencils, bookmarks. We’ll be distributing those within the next few weeks,” Thompson detailed. “This December, we’re sending six high-school juniors to a Rotary Leadership Camp. Then we’re looking at sending a couple of students from middle school to a similar thing in the spring. We also have our Interact Club at the high school that we support and they have been doing a lot of beautification programs at the school.”
There are all kinds of other projects that the club works on, as well, with Thompson explaining, “We always partner with the NyE Communities Coalition and Nevada Outreach for the holiday season. We’re going to be doing coffee, tea and hot chocolate for the Powwow next month and we’ll be cooking at the junior high and high school rodeo next year, usually hamburgers, hotdogs and nachos – and we feed all the volunteers for that for free. We do a lemonade stand at the Fall Festival, we sponsor a month of free swimming at the community pool every summer, we host the annual 9/11 Memorial Ceremony. Really, we just try to support as many organizations and causes as we can.”
Anyone interested in community service and volunteerism is encouraged to stop by a Pahrump Rotary meeting, which takes place the second and fourth Tuesday of the month at 12 p.m. at Artesian Cellars.
“Guests are always welcome. And we require all new members to attend three meetings and work on one project with us before they become an official member,” Thompson added. “That way, they get to learn a bit more about us before they take the leap. Then it’s a $40 initiation fee and $50 monthly dues.”
For more information, visit PVRotaryClub.org
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com
