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December 9, 2005
Tomaro was the first to fight for youngsters
Everybody comes together on a project and sees it through not because the net result is fame, fortune or, even better, a combination of both, but because it is simply the right thing to do. The need for a hospital is an example of something important to the entire community and now, after 15 years and a series of heartbreaking setbacks, that need is about to be met. The need for good roads and better drivers (so people quit dying), meaningful higher education opportunities (so high school grads can stay near home just a little while longer and single moms trying to better themselves don't have to work 10-hour days and then drive 65 miles to UNLV and back), a commercial tax base (to help pay for insane growth) and a progressive local government (to use that tax base wisely) are also high on my personal Pahrump wish list. But almost none of them compare to our need for a youth center. With the palpable exception of the dire and desperate want for a hospital, the establishment of a Boys & Girls Club has been a secondary vision of many since the 1980s. Objective accomplished. On Dec. 1 an appreciation banquet was held for backers of the project and its success is practically guaranteed. This was, of course, an example of society at its best: Government - county, town and school boards - business, public and private organizations and everyday people working together, productively and without a perverse desire for the spotlight, to create a better tomorrow. But there was one person that was not formally recognized at the event held at Saddle West, and while the slight was unintentional and wholly innocent I found it bitterly ironic. Why? Because nobody has worked harder, or longer, to make a special place for valley youngsters than has 27-year resident Bob Tomaro. Tomaro and I have a lot in common. He fought in some of the most horrific battles of the Korean War. That was the first of two wars in which my father participated. Tomaro boxed and coached boxers right here in Pahrump. Three matches were held to capacity crowds - more than 300 showed up for a series of bouts at Petrack Park, all to cheer on the half-dozen Pahrump boxers that didn't exactly have a Gold Gloves-sanctioned gym to learn the ropes, literally. Said Tomaro: "They trained in their driveways, you know? But those kids did good. They were great." I boxed in the '70s and traveled to charming burgs similar to Pahrump in places like Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico and Old Mexico. Tomaro figuratively fought for more than 16 years to coax numerous town boards and county commissions to build a youth center in the valley. I fought right alongside him for the last 10 of those years, both by endorsing the project in this space and on the street, quietly behind the scenes. Tomaro was not quiet. Before he retired, before he became a senior citizen, long before his infant granddaughter Samantha was diagnosed with cancer - she's doing fine these days and was the inspiration behind the Cancer Society's annual Relay for Life in Pahrump - and his own health became an issue, Bob Tomaro could be heard at government meetings giving our leaders buckets of grief over the need for something, anything, for our kids to do. The closest the town board ever came to achieving the goal was buying the $15,000 skate park that cost us $500,000 a few years ago, but the skate park serves a ridiculously small percentage of our youngest citizens and that hardly seems wise in hindsight. Tomaro these days is at peace knowing the Pahrump Boys & Girls Club looks like it is really going to happen thanks to too many people to mention along with a huge assist from the Henderson Boys & Girls Club. And he doesn't care who gets the credit. That's the kind of man he is and always has been. Tomaro has slowed down over the past few years and at 73 he doesn't have the energy he used to put on exhibit at any number of functions around town. But Tomaro's tenacity, in fact, would set a wonderful example to the very children who will most benefit from the establishment of a Boys & Girls Club - set a positive, selfless goal, pursue it with relentless intensity, never give up and someday you will prevail. "I'm tired," Tomaro said Wednesday night. "I worked so hard ... I tried to get them people to do something for the kids. "Why didn't they ever listen? Why are we here if we're not here for the kids? Do people read your newspaper? Do they read about the kids and the robberies and the drugs and the stuff they're doing these days? "Maybe this is the start of something good. I'm happy but where were all those people when I could still yell?" Well, Bob, people were listening but things sometimes take a while to work out. Last week dozens of people came out for the kids - and only for the kids. And though there was nary a mention of your name, your shadow loomed large over the showroom at the Saddle West. I know this even though I wasn't there. I didn't have to be there to see it; I could feel it. Write to Doug McMurdo at dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com. |
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