Moapa Valley Progress
The people of Moapa Valley will soon have the opportunity to make their homes safer due to the efforts of a group of local volunteers, the American Red Cross and the JustServe.org website.
Local residents are mobilizing on an ongoing Red Cross project with the important goal of bringing smoke detectors to every home. The effort has been a nationwide push for the Red Cross. The organization is providing smoke detectors free for every home that needs them. All they ask is that local volunteers and service organizations band together to see that the devices are installed correctly.
The local efforts began with Overton resident MaryLou Skaggs, a volunteer firefighter at Overton Fire Station 74. Skaggs said that in her visits to elderly people in Overton she had noticed that a lot of them didn’t have smoke detectors in their homes. As a firefighter, this concerned her.
“I have seen firsthand the dangers of fires in a home,” Skaggs said. “And smoke detectors are so important in providing a level of safety.”
Skaggs said she was listening to the news on TV one day where it was reported that the Red Cross was installing smoke detectors in homes for free. The only stipulation was that community service organizations had to provide the volunteer force to install them correctly, she said.
The smoke detectors being offered have a battery life of 10 years. After those 10 years, they can be simply thrown away and replaced.
Skaggs made a call to the Red Cross office in Las Vegas to ask how the program could be implemented in Moapa Valley.
“They said, ‘Where is Moapa Valley?’” she said with a laugh. “So I explained where we were and what the situation was and they were very interested in doing it.”
But in order to proceed, the Red Cross wanted to have a commitment of at least 50 smoke alarm installations in local homes.
“With three to four units needed in each home, I really didn’t see that as a problem,” Skaggs said. “Once we get going, we would far exceed that.”
The next step was to find a volunteer work force to help get the word out to the community and to eventually install the units. She spoke to the Moapa Fire Board and, of course, the fire stations were all in support. But being relatively small in number, they needed additional help for such an extensive project, Skaggs said.
So she eventually got together with local resident Larry Griffiths, who is the local coordinator for the JustServe.org website.
JustServe.org is a nationwide site that seeks to match faith, nonprofit, community and governmental organizations that need volunteers with a force of willing local volunteers who want to help. Skaggs said that the smoke detector project was a good fit for the site.
“When MaryLou told me about this project, we just latched onto it,” said Griffiths. “It was perfectly designed for our site. So we devised a plan to mobilize people to help with it.”
That plan involved cooperation with local service organizations including Moapa Valley Revitalization Project (MVRP), the MV Rotary Club, the local VFW Post and others. Griffiths is also urging local volunteer organizations, Scout troops, youth groups, families and individuals to get involved. All of these efforts can be coordinated from JustServe.org.
Phase 1 of the project will begin in Moapa town during the latter half of this month. Volunteers will be placing door hangers on every home in Moapa to let residents know of the project.
Moapa residents are then urged to follow the simple instructions on the door hangers to register for the free smoke detector installation by calling the local number or responding to the email address, both listed on the hanger. The smoke detectors are provided free to all who register. There are no qualifying factors to participate and no limits per household.
The registration process will schedule homes for installation in the month of October. During August and September, local volunteers will complete data entry, confirm registrants and be trained for installation. actual installation of the smoke detectors will take place during October as part of the multi-state Red Cross initiative.
The process will be repeated for the Logandale and Overton communities beginning in 2017.
Those interested in volunteering to help move the project forward can get information and register to do so through the involved community service organizations or at the JustServe.org website, Griffiths said.
“We are encouraging all residents to become involved in this worthy project to make the community safer,” said Griffiths. “We are excited about it and anxious to get it going.”
