By Stephanie Bunker
Moapa Valley Progress
A spaghetti dinner was on the menu Saturday evening at the Old Logandale School as a fundraiser for local resident, Billy Nicols. Nicols was in a off-road motorcycle accident several weeks ago and sustained back and hand injuries. Because of his injuries, Nicols is unable to go back to work to provide for his family for the next 3-4 months.
Nicols has a wife and two daughters, a 4 year old and 1 year old. He describes the help he is receiving from the community as “Awesome.”
“I’ve never had anything like this before,” he said. “It’s amazing to see everyone come together.”
His mom, Val Nicols, and aunts, Reida Uri and Cathy Reid, saw that Nicols was in need of help financially so they brought the community together to do what they could.
The goal was to collect enough money for two months rent for the family. The dinner far exceeded their goals, $2400 was collected through many generous donations. This will be enough to cover almost three months rent for the small family.
“We had a very successful turn out,” said Nicols cousin Dawn Uri. “We couldn’t have asked for a greater community. When someone is in need, they help out and I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of this valley.”
The t-shirt company, Kiss My X was a big part of donations to the Nicols family. Nicols had been a model for the company’s T-shirts that were posted on the Kiss My X website.
“I’ve known Billy for a year now,” said Kiss My X owner Jon Wong. “When they told me he went down I wanted to do what I can to help.”
Wong sold his t-shirts at the benefit dinner giving 100% of the proceeds to Nicols.
Along with the dinner, raffle tickets were sold to raise money for the Nicols. Tickets were on sale for $2 a ticket, or 6 tickets for $5.
There were numerous valuable prizes donated to the raffle. Val Nicols and Sandy Petitt had gone around town rounding up donors to contribute. The big ticket item was a shotgun donated by Overton Ace Hardware. Rod Keeney was lucky enough to have the winning ticket for the shotgun. A beautiful oil painting was donated by Lexi and Justin Moore, on the winning ticket was written A. Richardson. But no A. Richardson was in attendance. So he/she will be called to pick up his prize. Beezy Tobiason donated the use of the building, and also a complete set of her Muddy River book series, which values at over $200. A couple of decorative wooden wagons were donated to the raffle donated by Bob Silajy. Whitney Water Systems donated a free home inspection to a raffle winner. Overton Ace Hardware and Overton NAPA Auto Parts chipped in some tools as well. There were several gift cards that were raffled off. American Family Insurance gave multiple gas cards, and Robbins Trailer Park donated gift cards from Lin’s. Sugars, Inside Scoop, Muddy River Grill, and Pioneer Theatre also donated gift certificates. Lisa Blair gave Scentsy products. Vicki Wendt gave a gift card to TJ Maxx. Reyanna Jarrel gave a free photoshoot. Dawn Uri donated the Park Lane Jewelry. Lin’s and US Foods also contributed food for the dinner.
