By MAGGIE MCMURRAY
Moapa Valley Progress
Witches, wizards, princesses, superheroes, and many other fantastic and imaginary creatures were out in force on Friday night, as the Old Overton Gym hosted its annual community carnival. The annual family-friendly carnival is a gym tradition and is combination fundraiser and thank-you event for the community.
The turnout surprised even the planners. “The carnival went great!” said Old Overton Gym Board member Chris Green. “We had a fantastic turnout. We were worried about people being able to come on such a busy night with the football game, the Fall Festival, and many other events going on, but we needn’t have worried. We had great support from everyone!”
Community organizations were represented all over the gym. Mack Lyon Middle School Dance Team members helped to decorate the gym like an old-fashioned carnival and ran many of the games. There was a Penny Jar Toss, a Ping Pong ball game, a very popular fish pond, a tennis ball game, and a toilet paper toss to name a few.
Simplot Silica was a big sponsor and provided a dart throw game, caramel popcorn, and regular popcorn.
Local youth Anna Mayo, 12, also provided her own booth as a service to the gym. She and her grandmother made more than a hundred balloons-on-a-stick and streamer sticks. They were all gone within the first hour and she was hurriedly making more.
“I wanted to do this booth to help out the gym,” Mayo said.
“I did the balloons last year and they were really popular. We added the streamer sticks this year and they were even more popular. It was a lot of fun to make them and then to come see the kids enjoy them at the carnival.”
Perhaps the most popular attraction of the night, if line length was any indication, was the National Junior Honor Society Spook Alley. Kids were given the choice of going through the “scary” version or the “not scary” version. Most kids chose the “scary” version, but many parents were thankful for the choice that made it fun for little kids as well.
Fifth grader Emma Gollahan was one of the brave ones. “The spook alley is my favorite thing here,” she said. “I did the scary version. It’s a lot of fun.”
The Art Guild was also present and helping out in the kitchen where dinner was available for those who were hungry. Dinner ingredients were donated to the gym by the local Rotary club and the chili was cooked by local chili chef Denna Anderson. The chili was then used in Frito pie, which was served with a drink.
Baked goods were available at the bake sale table for dessert for anyone who was still hungry.
Having an Old Overton Gym membership has a lot of benefits, not the least of which was a free dinner at the carnival for anyone buying a membership that night.
“Gym membership sales have been good,” said board member John Stastny who was working the membership table. “The community support has been outstanding.” You can find more information about gym membership at oldogym.com.
Candis Mayo, Gym Manager, was very pleased with the support. “I was afraid there would not be too many people here tonight because of all the conflicts,” she said. “But I started with a full popcorn machine and by 6:15 I was already sold out and making more popcorn! We’re so grateful to the community for supporting us and coming out for this fun evening.”
