By STEPHANIE BUNKER
Moapa Valley Progress
There were plenty of beauties, and a few beasts, at the first annual Beauty and Beast Competition hosted by Partners In Conservation (PIC) on Saturday at the Clark County Fairgrounds. Jeeps, ATV’s, and trucks lined up to be judged on the character, and condition of the off-road vehicles.
PIC divided the group into several classes of vehicles. The rock crawler class was the biggest. There was also scenic driving, side-by-side’s, and ATV/Motorcycles. The event had 20 vehicles that registered into the competition.
“I was hoping to match the numbers at the car show in the fall,” said event organizer and PIC Administrator Elise McAllister. “Our numbers were much lower; but this is our first year and they are good numbers for Moapa Valley.”
The vehicles that entered the competition parked in a roped off section of the parking lot as display to passersby’s. There they wait for judging.
The judges had a tough job cut out for them. They had to define what consisted as the most beautiful, and the most beastly, rigs. The five local judges were Roland Smith, Mike Hemingway, Everett Comparoni, Judy and Sugar Metz. The team inspected each vehicle closely sorting out the beauties from the beasts.
Jenna Sala from Las Vegas brought her 2005 Wrangler TJ decked out in pink trim, “We came out to support Elise and PIC,” she said. “It’s nice that I know 90% of the people here and it gets us out to play.”
After some socializing and checking out vehicles the group gathered for the award ceremony. Each category had a beauty winner and beast winner. In addition there was an overall beauty and overall beast award.
“I think it was great that the awards were about half local and half from Las Vegas,” McAllister said.
The Overall winner of the Beauty went to Jeff Jorgensen and the winner of Overall Beast was Stephanie Bunker. People’s Choice also went to Jeff Jorgensen. The Rock Crawler Beauty of the year was Brian Crawler and the Beast was Joe O’Bremski. In the Scenic Driver category Jeff O’Bremski won the Beauty of the year and Michael Bates received Beast of the year. The Side-by-side Beauty of the year was Kenneth Robison and the Beast went to Brian Burris.
All winners received a trophy and a shirt, flag, or gift certificates to local restaurants.
Following the award ceremony was a raffle. A few of the larger prizes included a winch, 4 rounds of golf at the Coyote Springs Golf Course, a helmet, five $100 gift certificates to a Jewelry store. In addition, many other local businesses pitched in and donated gift cards and items.
McAllister explained that PIC has had grant funding in its stewardship of Logandale Trails which will end in September.
“Part of the grant requirement for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was that we show that we are finding ways to provide our own funding,” she said.
Other ways PIC is reaching out to provide funding is to have a shop online where they will sell t-shirts and other items. They also received a check of $7,000 from Vegas Valley 4-wheelers from what was left over after the Hump & Bump, an annual jeep jamboree event that PIC assists the Vegas Valley 4-wheelers with.
“A lot of us came out because we are big time supporters of PIC,” said Vegas Valley 4-wheelers president Jeff Jorgensen.
