AHR Expo Innovation Awards Donates $22,500 to Opportunity Village

WESTPORT, CT — Each year as part of its submission process, the AHR Expo Innovation Awards Competition collects entry fees that are then donated in full to a charitable organization within regional proximity to the corresponding year’s show.

For 2017, the AHR Expo announces Opportunity Village as the recipient of $22,500 in AHR Expo Innovation Awards proceeds, to be directly applied toward HVACR upgrades and new equipment purchases at three existing and one new campus location.

Founded in 1954, Opportunity Village serves children and adults with intellectual disabilities in the southern Nevada community – aiming to enhance their lives via vocational training, community employment, day services, advocacy and arts, and social recreation. Through its success in helping severely disabled citizens build friendships, career paths, independence and creative passions, Opportunity Village has grown to become Nevada’s largest non-profit community rehabilitation program.

“At its core, AHR Expo exemplifies all the ways in which HVACR can contribute toward making the world a more pleasant and productive place,” said Clay Stevens, president of International Exposition Company, the Show managers. “We are proud to be able to extend this sentiment through donations to the HVACR needs of worthy organizations, and particularly those located right in the backyard of each year’s Show.  With 2017’s donation, Opportunity Village receives the chance to increase its capacity to help Nevada’s disabled citizens – upgrading and expanding existing facilities that provide them with valuable support services from teaching life skills, to providing social recreation, to offering vocational and career-oriented training.”

Proceeds will specifically be applied to thermostat replacements and other HVACR system retrofits throughout Lied Center, located on the Opportunity Village West Oakey Campus.  Constructed from 1990 to 1992, this is the oldest of the organization’s three current campuses, and as the organization’s primary location, houses numerous programs and services provided to its nearly 3,000 community clients.

In total, the organization owns three locations – the West Oakey, Ralph & Betty Engelstead and Walters Family campuses.  Activities at a fourth North Campus location, currently leased by Opportunity Village, will eventually be moved to a new campus (on which construction is slated to commence in 2017).

We are incredibly grateful to the AHR Expo for their support of our organization... Every penny and in-kind donation counts.

— Cary Harned, senior grants and major gifts officer, Opportunity Village

“Opportunity Village is a primarily self-funded, not-for-profit organization and is the largest of its kind in Nevada,” said Cary Harned, senior grants and major gifts officer at Opportunity Village. “The Oakey Campus is home to most of our special fundraising events that support the programs and services we provide, and is just one part of an entire set of sites that require HVACR retrofits to better suit the clients and our events.”

Additionally, the funds will be applied toward transforming all campus sites into updated, efficient and dynamic spaces for Opportunity Village clients, staff and visitors.  According to Harned, they will also increase the organization’s capacity for remaining a financially self-sufficient entity.

“We are incredibly grateful to the AHR Expo for their support of our organization,” continued Harned. “Every penny and in-kind donation counts when it comes to ensuring our clients are provided with the best facilities, programs, services and staff we can give them. We welcome this gift from the AHR Expo to provide amenities that will truly enhance our clients’ lives.”

For additional information on the 2017 AHR Expo, to be held January 30 to February 1 in Las Vegas, visit www.ahrexpo.com.

About Opportunity Village

Opportunity Village is a not-for-profit organization that serves people with intellectual disabilities (“OVIPs”) in southern Nevada to enhance their lives and the lives of the families who care for them. Since 1954, Opportunity Village has been dedicated to helping people with severe intellectual and related disabilities live more meaningful lives. Through vocational training, community employment, day services, advocacy, arts and social recreation, citizens with severe disabilities are able to make new friends, realize future career paths, seek independence and community integration and unleash creative passions.

Annually, Opportunity Village serves approximately 3,000 OVIPs and their families and does so without charge to them. It is a primarily self-funded organization, generating 80% of its budget through fiscal conservatism, service and in-house employment & training contracts and fundraising efforts. For FY2017, its operations/program budget stands at $25,211,638 and does not include the OV’s 5-year Capital Campaign (goal-$150 million with $106 million raised to date) which is raised separately. OV does not rely on federal or state funding to sustain its programs and services.

In its 62 years of service to southern Nevada, Opportunity Village has served tens of thousands of families, increased positive community awareness of people with disabilities, provided programs that are germane to individual needs, jobs and the local economy. They have fought for the civil and social rights everyone expects and deserves and offered choices to people and their families that further their work and social lives.