Heroes Night seeks to Stop the Stigma

By LAURA ROBISON

The Progress

The third annual Moapa Valley Heroes Night celebration took place on Monday, April 22 at the Clark County Fairgrounds. It was the biggest, most successful, and well-attended event of its kind to date.

The event was put together by local resident Erika Whitmore, Moapa Valley Fire District (MVFD) Chief Stephen Neel, and local Metro Sgt. Keegan Doty. It is organized each year to allow the community to show support for its first responders.

With near perfect weather, the VFW began the evening with a flag ceremony and the crowd reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Neel welcomed everyone and gave an account of his personal experience with mental health.
“The stigma is that first responders have a shield that protects them from things that they might encounter throughout their career and that nothing will phase them,” Neel said. “But the truth of the matter is that we are human and we are affected by the traumas that we see throughout our careers; just like any other person would be.”

Neel said that first responders need to stop the stigma and talk to people. “It is ok to ask for help,” he said. “It’s okay to not be okay.”
T-shirts were available for purchase. On the back of the shirts has a statement which read, “Are you good bruh?”
“This means checking on our fellow first responders to make sure they’re okay and being in tune to calls that they are running and anniversaries.” Neel stated.

Neel related his own story about the subject of mental health. He told about when he was 18 years old, his brother had committed suicide. Since that time, he said he had struggled with mental health with things he has seen and done throughout his career.

“Working out here in this small community we can’t escape what we have seen.” Neel said. “Because you’ll continue to see the families that were affected by the call that we ran on throughout the community; or drive by the scene of an accident that we’ve been on or the house where somebody has died. Those traumas continue to come back to the forefront and you can’t ever let it go. So it’s important that we recognize it and we find our outlet of how we deal with these traumas.”

Information tables, demonstrations, and emergency vehicles and equipment were on hand at the event to help make residents aware of the many services available.

A hamburger dinner was provided for $5 per person which was prepared and served by local heroes and VFW members, who also donated $500 to the effort.
The Moapa Valley Rotary Club donated ice cream for the crowd.
Kasen Kolhoss and his crew from Custom Fit Realty made and sold funnel cakes.
The Nevada Office of Suicide Prevention provided handouts to be distributed and donated two gun safes as raffle prizes.

A dunk tank was set up and manned by the 4-H Teen Leadership Corps (TLC).
Metro Police had a traffic unit available where youth could sit in a simulator with special goggles that simulated driving impaired. There was also a Metro helicopter, as well as a K9 demonstration at the event. A Go-Kart obstacle course and SWAT vehicle was provided by Mesquite Police Dept.
Smokey the Bear came from the Nevada Dept. of Forestry.

The big draw for the evening was the volleyball championship games. These included a Metro Police team, an MVFD team, and both boys and girls teams from Moapa Valley High School.

All in good fun, the fire and police teams each played the boys and girls high school teams. But the Championship game, for the prize belt ultimately was won by the MVFD.

“Our valley appreciates and loves the service that each one of our heroes give!” said Erika Whitmore. “Our responders witness traumatic events. There is hope, and there is help!”

At the end of the evening, Neel expressed thanks to all the individuals and organizations for their generous support. About $7,000 was raised to go towards providing mental health avenues for the local heroes.