M.V. Father of the Year Named

Last week a long-awaited announcement was made. Lin’s Marketplace in Overton awarded the winner of the 2009 Moapa Valley Father of the Year award on Wednesday, July 1. Usually this important announcement is made during the Father’s Day weekend. But this year’s recipient was out of town vacationing with his family at that time. Thus, the honor was bestowed immediately upon his return last week.

The 2009 Father of the Year award went to Dennis Whitmore of Logandale. Dennis, his wife Erika and their six children have lived in the Moapa Valley community for two years

All eight family members were in attendance last week for the award. The children, who range in age from 11 years to 5 months old were excited for their dad to be recognized. “It was the kids who started all of this,” said Erika. “They saw in the newspaper that the contest was going on and they wanted to make sure that their dad was nominated.”

Each one of the Whitmore kids wrote a letter making a brief, but obviously compelling, case for why their dad should be chosen. All of these letters were then turned in to the staff at Lin’s.

“The kids’ letters were great,” said Lynae Black, Lin’s front-end manager who was on the selection committee for the award. “Some of them almost made me cry.”

The children each wrote briefly about their favorite quality time with dad. Some of these included: being a football coach, being a great cook, playing checkers and other games, going on daddy-daughter date nights, going out on hikes in the area and more.

“Dennis is an amazing father,” observed wife, Erika. “He has a wonderful relationship with each one of the kids.”

Asked how it felt to be named the 2009 Moapa Valley Father of the Year, Dennis smiled and said, “Well, I’m a little embarrassed. But it is fun. I think that it is fun that they took the initiative and did this.”

For his Father’s Day prize, Dennis won a whole basket of special goodies from Lin’s Marketplace .