COLUMN: Carmel Hopkins

Some of the hardest working people in Southern Nevada can be found at Opportunity Village, Nevada's leading nonprofit organization serving people with intellectual disabilities.

At its campus at 6300 W. Oakey Blvd., a new $850,000 Food Service Training Facility was recently unveiled.

The kitchen offers a training opportunity for clients, and enables the nonprofit to serve meals to its in-house workers on a daily basis for a nominal fee.

The facility is also part of a new Job Discovery Program, a job training partnership with the Clark County School District and others offering disabled students a transition from school to work.

George McCabe, director of sales and marketing for the nonprofit, said Nevada Partners -- a nonprofit that deals with local youths, especially at-risk youths -- contracted to use the new kitchen while its own kitchen is being built.

The stainless-steel facility was a natural for the nonprofit, and an intense fund-raising campaign included the generosity of people such as Kitty Rodman, Claudine Williams of Harrah's, and Steve and Elaine Wynn.

Since the late '90s, the nonprofit's clients have served thousands of meals per week at the Nellis Air Force Base dining facility.

"Before we built this kitchen, our clients working at Nellis had to train under fire," McCabe said. "Now, we can do on-site training and they can learn at an easier pace."

He pointed out that the staff of about 100 people working at Nellis includes about 75 disabled people.

"We have a few positions where our clients can't work, such as chef and cashiers," McCabe said. "The rank and file are servers on the buffet line, bus tables, clean up and wash dishes."

It's anticipated that the new facility will be able to prepare and serve food for fund-raisers such as its annual Camelot celebration.

"Now we have a great facility where we can do it ourselves, indoors, instead of having celebrity chefs and scantily clad servers standing out in the cold," he said.

Since the kitchen has opened, several businesses have inquired about catering their functions. These inquiries have prompted staffers to ponder whether catering is another avenue of opportunity for their clients.

Of about 600 OV clients, nearly 300 are working in the community. Their jobs range from assisting in thrift stores, to operating the Postal Service Center at Nellis, to cleaning CAT buses.

The nonprofit is contracted to clean parking lots at more than 20 American Nevada Co. sites. It also has contracts to clean various public facilities.

The goal is to make as many of its clients as self-supporting as possible. Therefore, the nonprofit has worked to put together several programs where the more intellectually capable clients may receive the intensive training needed.

Everyone wants to be viewed as productive and the clients at Opportunity Village are no exception. They show up at work every day, where they are paid by the piece. At the end of the week they collect a paycheck. Some go home to their parents; some live in group homes; but they all feel their work is important.

Carmel Hopkins, real estate product manager for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Las Vegas Sun, can be reached at 380-4574. Her e-mail address is Carmel_Hopkins@ lasvegasnewspapers.com. Snail mail is P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.

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