Boys & Girls Club, state museum have big fundraisers Saturday

The Nevada State Museum and the Boys & Girls Club of Western Nevada will each host its biggest fundraiser of the year Saturday.

The ninth annual Tin Cup Tea and Chuck Wagon Barbecue will include an auction and live music to support the Nevada State Museum's collections, exhibits and education programs..

The fundraiser at the Governor's Mansion raised about $110,000 last year for the museum in Carson City, said Nevada State Museum Director Jim Barmore, and organizers hope to do well again.

The museum's budget is about $2 million a year, but the museum, a division of the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs, has also depended in part on private donations, he said.

The museum will know how much the fundraiser brought in next week, he said.

Nevada State Museum's most visible work, a $3.2 million construction project that will improve access for disabled people to displays like the museum's underground mining exhibit, is scheduled to be done in January, he said.

A glass and steel structure also will be built to display some of the museum's large artifices so they can be seen from outside.

Current displays at the museum, 600 N. Carson St., include "Slot Machines: The Fey Collection" and "Anthropology Curator's Gallery Walk of Selections from the Collections."

The band playing Saturday night is the Quebe Sisters Band. The music is a blend of western swing, western, vintage country, tradition fiddle tunes and hot jazz.

Organizers of fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Club of Western Nevada are hoping for a big response this year to help the hundreds of children and teenagers they serve.

The club's 15th annual World's Best Barbecue & Kids Auction raised over $300,000 last year, a huge number for a club with an annual budget of $1.75 million, said Hal Hansen, club director.

The economy is slow, Hansen said, but he's optimistic about the fundraiser judging from the number of ticket sales already.

"It looks to be really good this year," he said.

Items that will be auctioned include trips, dinners and a Barry Bonds baseball.

Hansen said the club will have to reduce staff hours or cut staff if enough money isn't raised.

"This is huge," he said.

The money raised at the auction will go to operations, but the club has almost enough for its biggest construction project " a new club at Russell Way and Northridge Drive.

Work started on the 12,600-square-foot club in fall 2005. It is scheduled to open in spring 2009. About $200,000 more is needed to finish, Hansen said.

The club has about 1,600 children and teenagers as members. It runs education, social and mentor programs through its South Stewart building now.

The club and the city are planning a joint-use agreement between the club and the city's $9 million recreation center.