Aspire Center Seeks Help to Realize Vision

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

A local non-profit which has been offering an important service to many Moapa Valley families is now seeking help from the community to take that service to the next level.

The Aspire Center was created in the fall of 2021 to help local children and adults with a variety of disabilities to reach their full potential. They do this through offering regular vocational training sessions, community employment opportunities, life skills tutoring, social activities and more.

But Aspire has set its sights even higher than that. The ultimate vision is to build a new local facility that will provide comprehensive services for special needs residents of all ages. These would include a day center program, respite care, vocational training, job placement, counseling and other general support for parents/guardians of Aspire clients.

But to get the Aspire Center built, this 501c3 organization seeks for the generosity of some of the deeper pockets in the community and beyond. Construction costs on such a facility are expected to come in at around $2 million.

“We would love to see some larger donors catch the vision and get involved with us on this,” said Aspire Center board president Nancy Postma. “We need folks out there who are needing a tax write-off and who could help us with the funds to get off the ground. That is what we are really looking for at this point.”

The idea of the Aspire Center began a couple of years ago with just a few community leaders meeting at the Logandale Park during the COVID pandemic. “This all started with just three of us getting together to talk about what the special needs people in our community really need here,” said Postma.

Postma herself is recently retired from a 29-year career of teaching Special Education in Moapa Valley schools. Thus, she is quite familiar with the scope of those needs in Moapa Valley.

The other two in attendance at that first meeting were local residents Erika Whitmore and Greg Winzenried. Whitmore is currently employed as a social worker at Mack Lyon Middle School in Overton and is, herself, a parent of a child with Downs Syndrome. Winzenried has worked as a school psychologist for 35 years.

“One of our main things at that early stage was just to talk about what options our special needs high school students have available to them after graduation,” Postma added. “The sad thing is, there are really no resources or programs here for them. Nothing local to help them continue on and integrate into society. We saw that as a real local need to be filled.”

The idea quickly gained momentum and the group of three visionaries quickly grew into an 8-member volunteer board of directors; each of whom have actively brought their unique skillsets to the table in the endeavor. The remaining board members include Theresa Paystrup, Kyra Abbott, Byron Mills, Mary Lee Winzenried and Dr. Larry Moses.

Currently, the Aspire Center meets with clients regularly to do vocational training. These meetings are currently held at the Logandale Cooperative Extension which has become an important local partner with Aspire.

In these meetings, the clients work on making signature Aspire-branded dog treats, greeting cards and other crafts. Then they attend local fairs and vendor events to sell these products to help fund the Aspire programs.

“They learn some basic skills just while making these products,” Postma said of the Aspire client participants. “But they also learn how to properly handle money, make change; and they brush up on their people skills in those interactions.”

Aspire also plans quarterly activities where a larger group of clients, and often their whole families, get together to do something fun.
“What we are doing now makes a big difference to the clients and their families,” Postma said. “Up to now we have been able to fund all of our programs through the generous support of the community; people giving relatively small donations, which we so appreciate.”

But all of this is just the tip of the iceberg. The Aspire board has kept its eye on a much greater need in the community; one that they are not yet equipped to fully address.

Based on the population of the Moapa Valley communities, and the placement rates of Clark County School District, Aspire Center could be addressing the needs of as many as 500 clients of varying levels of need just here in Moapa Valley. According to the Aspire business plan documents, the board is currently aware of at least 100 local families who could use a variety of these kinds of services.

To meet the unique needs of so many, however, Aspire would require a physical facility of its own in the community where clients could come and receive services, Postma said.

Aspire has already covered a lot of ground toward that lofty goal. The non-profit is the recent recipient of a five-acre parcel of land located in the open area just south of downtown Overton. This parcel was donated to Aspire by a former resident.

The property value of this sizable gift has been estimated to be around $150,000, Postma said.
“We have the option of either building right there on that parcel, or selling that property and purchasing something else more suitable,” she added.

The Aspire board has also gone out and had conceptual plans drawn up for their proposed building. These plans envision a state-of-the-art new facility which would be “a tremendous resource to the community,” Postma said.

The plans include a full gymnasium, a kitchen area, classrooms, a craft room, a small gift shop for Aspire clients to sell their products and more. There would also be plenty of outdoor space for fitness and sporting activities, gardening and raising chickens, goats and other small animals. Further into the future, Postma even envisions the possibility of some assisted living housing to be included in this Aspire complex.

But for now, the board is laser focused on finding funding to start construction on the Aspire Center facility.

Postma said that the board has already seen the support of the community in important portions of this proposal. “We have been surprised and grateful when local contractors and construction people have come forward – having caught the vision – and told us that they would donate various supplies or labor for the construction,” Postma said. “This is a huge help and it could reduce our construction costs significantly.”

But there is still a long way to go and Aspire is in need of larger cash donations to get the project off the ground, Postma said.

More information about Aspire, and how to get involved with its mission, is available at www.acaamv.org or call 702-544-6161.