MARK WAITE / PVT Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce Vice-President Dan Rodriguez, at left, presents the second annual Chamber Community Service Award to Bob and Joyce Baker on stage during the Wild West Extravaganza Saturday night. Advertisement

When Bob and Joyce Baker were nominated for the second annual Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce community service award, chamber president Don Trudeau said the board instantly voted unanimously to endorse the couple.

The Bakers received the award Saturday night during the Wild West Extravaganza, before the last Pahrump performance by Jack Reeves, at the recreated Boomtown in back of the Saddle West Hotel and Casino. It was an appropriate setting for the couple who started the Wild West Extravaganza seven years ago. Reeves was the first recipient of the award last year.

Asked for a comment, Trudeau, who opened Pahrump's first car dealership in 2001, said, "As long as I've been in town, Bob has been involved with so many different things with United Way, but also he's the one who's responsible for the Wild West Extravaganza. It was kind of his baby from the beginning. He just gives so much to this town and he gives it without asking for anything back. His heart is in the right place and Joyce is always there right along side him."

Bob Baker gave a lot of credit to Joyce, his wife for over 50 years, who spurred him on to join various groups. He said jokingly, "If you don't want to play golf, don't go to a board meeting and don't let your wife drag you there."

The Bakers moved to Pahrump in 1996 after spending 19 years in Salt Lake City, where Bob worked for Sperry Corporation and Joyce worked at Mervyn's department store. Bob had a 21 year Army career before that, including service in Vietnam.

"When we first got here we were playing golf and doing ceramics. Joyce saw a little ad in the briefs and it said basically we need some board members for the Family Resource Center," Bob Baker recalled.

Former Family Resource Center head Linda Fitzgibbons then said something about the United Way. Joyce Baker said they were formerly directors for the United Way which led to the Bakers forming of a Pahrump chapter, with the help of volunteers like real estate agent Shelly Bolen and former Smith's Food and Drug Manager Rod Sherer.

Baker said he joined the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce board to promote the United Way among local businessmen and women.

"A lot of people heard about the United Way but didn't really know what we did because we had never been out here in any significant presence. It just kind of blossomed from there," Baker said.

The Wild West Extravaganza was born when Gail Hardy, formerly a director on the Harvest Festival committee, the predecessor to the fall festival, challenged Baker to put together a hoe down. At the same time Debbie Strickland organized the first Pony Express reenactment. After three years both events grew in size and were merged into the Wild West Extravaganza, he said.

During the first hoe downs the audience listened to banjo players and fiddlers while sitting on bales of hay set up on the asphalt parking lot at the Pahrump Nugget Casino on a weekday night. The hoe down and pony express were initially meant to be a week-long buildup to the harvest festival.

Then there were the ethnic celebrations the Bakers organized to raise money for the United Way. They include the Oktoberfest, scheduled this year for Oct. 13 at Honeysuckle Park; the most successful, the Cinco de Mayo celebration, honoring the Mexican-American community -- despite what Baker called 'jerks like (former town board member) Mike Miraglia," -- the St. Patrick's Day party and the Hawaiian luau.

"We're delighted to do it because they're basically a family-oriented thing," Baker said. "We hope to continue to bring ethnic events and to emphasize to especially the younger people how these people fit into our culture. Of course we always have good food too."

Baker said the United Way had some special projects, like when the Mountain View Casino burned down in 2003. The United Way also funded the building of a storage facility for the Marine Corps' Toys for Tots drive, repaired coolers at the Pahrump Senior Center, donated money for little league scholarships, contributed money to start up the Pahrump Boys and Girls Club and more.

The organization though primarily deals with agencies like No to Abuse, the Pahrump Boys and Girls Club, the 4-H Club, Salvation Army, the Christmas in April program, boy scouts, girl scouts and the Nye Community Coalition.

"Through our network of what we call accredited agencies, we're able to service a community from the senior center to little league and everything in between," Baker said.

With all those activities, Baker said he's putting in more hours working as a volunteer than when he held a regular job.