MARK WAITE / PVT B.J. Hetrick-Irwin, founder of the Nevada Silver Tappers and the Ms. Senior Golden Years USA Pageant, will be the grand marshal of the 2007 Pahrump Fall Festival Parade. PVT FILE PHOTO B.J. Hetrick-Irwin, grand marshal of the 2007 fall festival parade, at right, walks off stage at the Saddle West Casino after performing the usual toy soldier routine at the annual Nevada Silver Tappers Christmas show. Advertisement

B.J. Hetrick-Irwin, who founded the Nevada Silver Tappers, a group which has promoted higher self-esteem for senior women and in the process donated healthy checks through numerous fundraisers to local charities, will be honored as the grand marshal of the 2007 Pahrump Fall Festival Parade.

The parade will take off at 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, at Highway 160 and Dandelion Road as the kick-off to the Pahrump Fall Festival.

A 21-gun salute and the singing of the national anthem by Rhonda Van Winkle will get the parade off to a rousing start. It will be simulcast on all Pahrump television stations Channel 41, Channel 30/62 and KPAH, the Internet station.

"It's for the community services, that we do so much for the community. We do a lot, and who deserves it more than the Nevada Silver Tappers. It isn't about me, it's about the girls," Hetrick-Irwin said.

An active octogenarian who seems to typify the Nevada Silver Tappers' youthful attitude, Hetrick-Irwin heard about the news via a telephone call while she was on a cruise.

"I said, 'What's that?' It was quite a shock. It was wonderful, what an honor. Who'd ever thought?" she recalled.

"She just has given so much back to the community and good will to our seniors. That's what we look for when we start choosing, who's out there," said Barbara Buchanon, chairwoman of the Pahrump Fall Festival Parade Committee.

Hetrick-Irwin started the Tappers in 1988, a year after moving to Pahrump from San Diego. She was traveling to Las Vegas regularly with her husband, the late Tom Hetrick, who was a contractor and traveled over the hump to get his state contractor's license.

"When I was over there, I did too much gambling, so I saw this ad in the paper for senior tappers," Hetrick-Irwin said.

While she was never a tap dancer as a child, Hetrick-Irwin quickly got in the groove, dancing with a Las Vegas senior dancing group.

"In three months they had me teaching out here. We originally started out as the Nevada State Troopers," Hetrick-Irwin said. "I broke away and became my own person, the Nevada Silver Tappers. I believe that was in '89."

"When I first started teaching, I had one student and now we're up to over 45. I've had probably over 200 students come and go through the years," Hetrick-Irwin said.

The Tappers will be in the parade just behind Hetrick-Irwin, who, in keeping with the masquerade theme of this year's festival, will be dressed in a Mardi Gras outfit.

Five years ago, Hetrick-Irwin began the Ms. Senior Golden Years USA Pageant, open to women 60 and older. She had previously been director of the Ms. Senior Nevada Pageant for nine years.

"I saw all the beautiful women here and decided I need to stay in my own local town, where I can develop something of my dream," Hetrick-Irwin said.

While the senior women are grateful for the activities and the bonding, it's the community service generated by the Tappers that earned Hetrick-Irwin kudos.

The Tappers host their annual Christmas show, which in previous years handed money to organizations ranging from Nathan Adelson Hospice to the Pahrump Valley High School band for uniforms.

She especially remembered the Nathan Adelson Hospice during the 2006 show, for caring for her late husband, Bob Irwin, who died last year.

When the Tappers hold their Christmas show this Dec. 2 at the Saddle West Casino, proceeds will be donated to the Pahrump Senior Center, she said.

A few years ago, the Nevada Silver Tappers put on a special show to aid a family left homeless after a fire.

"We have donated to many, many (causes). We go through social services to find out needy families, but over the years, finding out the community comes together so wonderful this time of year we find different causes," Hetrick-Irwin said.

Hetrick-Irwin was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and served as a nurse at a Women's Army Corps hospital there during World War II. But she didn't continue in the medical field, instead raising two children. Her slight Southern drawl comes from her years spent in Alexandria, La.

The Silver Tappers were recently named ambassadors of Pahrump by the town board, a designation that will send the group on public relations visits all over, she said. The Tappers will even perform on a Holland-America line cruise to Mexico next March, Hetrick-Irwin said.

In another honor for the Silver Tappers this year, the group was given the Golden Heart Award during the annual United Way Cheers for Volunteers dinner.

"It's a very bonded group, and the friends that we develop, they're always there for you no matter what. No matter what happened to me, my Tappers are here for me. I could not have gone through the death of Bob or Tom if it hadn't have been for my Tappers," Hetrick-Irwin said.

"When I first started there was nothing here for the ladies, and I started noticing they weren't keeping their makeup on and their hair done, and they had nothing to get up for in the morning. Now you know a Silver Tapper when you meet them," she said.