Helping youth golf programs flourish in Pahrump once again will combine with the chance to win prizes when the 23rd annual Quarter Auction returns to Mountain Falls Golf Club on April 14.
Proceeds from the event benefit the Pahrump Valley Youth Golf Founders Club, according to Sarah Hopkins, a longtime Quarter Auction Committee member.
“We give a $5,000 scholarship each year for a senior golfer” at Pahrump Valley High School, Hopkins said. “The money also helps with sports at the middle school and the high school. It buys bags for the kids and balls and tees. It furnishes kids with stuff the parents don’t have to furnish and it takes a burden off of the schools.”
This will be the third year the event will be held at the Grill Room at Mountain Falls. Previously, the Quarter Auction took place at Lakeside Casino and the Pahrump Nugget.
“When we first started doing it, we used strictly quarters,” Hopkins explained. “If you wanted to win a prize, you put your quarter in the pot. At Lakeside and the Nugget we had access to plenty of quarters, then after we moved out to Mountain Falls, we changed it to just a flat fee and you’re either in or you’re not in.”
Tickets this year are $60. A table for 10 may be purchased for $600. While tickets buyers have the chance to bid on items up for auction, there will be 160 prizes to be won as well. Better yet, the same person can win multiple prizes.
“We’ve had flat-screen TVs, patio sets, fancy grills. We’ve had patio bars. We’ve had some nice prizes,” Hopkins said. “Most of the prizes will go from $75 to $100, but the bigger prizes we wait until the end, and those can be anywhere from $250 to $500.
“When you come in and turn in your ticket you are given a paddle and a ping-pong ball, and they have numbers on them. You put the ping-pong ball in the hopper, and you keep the paddle. If your number is drawn, you win the prize. And you have a chance to win as many times as your ball comes out. You could win 25 if you get lucky.
“I’ve never been lucky.”
But young golfers in Pahrump have been very lucky thanks to the Quarter Auction, which has generated more than a quarter of a million dollars over the years.
“Larry and Elaine Goins got it started, and then we came in a few years later,” Hopkins said of herself and her husband, Bob, who coaches the golf teams at Pahrump Valley High School. Both golfing families have had children win the scholarship, which in some years is not the only one awarded.
“We have to keep this going so we can maintain the scholarship,” Hopkins said. “Sometimes if we have a couple of kids who came through junior golf and played all the way through, one might win the scholarship but we’ll give the other $1,000. We like to give kids who stuck with golf the whole time something. We try to do as much as we can.”
Tickets will not be sold at the door. Hopkins said the best way to buy tickets is to contact Chad Goins, the 1997 winner of the scholarship, at Farmers Insurance at 775-727-5241. “He’s part of the board, and it’s easy for people to access him,” she said.
Hors-d’oeuvres will be served beginning at 6 p.m., April 14, with the auction slated to start at 7 p.m.
Contact Sports Editor Tom Rysinski at trysinski@pvtimes.com On Twitter:@pvtimes