First Tip a Cop fundraiser comes to Pahrump restaurant

Romero’s Mexican Restaurant will become the latest stage for a law-enforcement fundraiser in Pahrump, as Nye County Sheriff’s Office deputies join Special Olympics Nevada athletes for the first Tip a Cop event ever brought to town. The fundraiser is set for May 16 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Romero’s on Humahuaca Street, and it puts deputies, athletes and restaurant staff in the same room for a simple purpose: raise money for local Special Olympics athletes.

During the event, deputies will swap their uniforms for aprons and help serve drinks, while officers and Special Olympics athletes act as celebrity waiters. Special Olympics Nevada says 100 percent of the tips collected during Tip a Cop go directly to the organization. The fundraiser page also says guests can “dine, donate and dunk,” with a Nye County Sheriff Joe McGill dunk tank among the planned attractions, along with raffles and a spin-to-win wheel.

The event is designed to do more than fill a restaurant for one evening. Special Olympics Nevada says the Pahrump fundraiser is meant to raise both money and awareness for Special Olympics athletes in Nye County, tying a local business, county deputies and athletes into one visible public event. Alex Romero, whose restaurant is hosting the fundraiser, and Special Olympics Nevada development and Law Enforcement Torch Run manager Jezz Medina-Manning have framed the effort as a community celebration that puts athletes in the spotlight.

The Pahrump event also plugs into a much larger law-enforcement tradition. Special Olympics says the Law Enforcement Torch Run began in 1981 in Wichita, Kansas, when Police Chief Richard LaMunyon created the Torch Run, and the program was presented to the International Association of Chiefs of Police in 1983. Special Olympics says LETR fundraising events, including Tip a Cop, have collectively raised more than $1 billion since the movement began.

That history helps explain why a dinner fundraiser at a Pahrump restaurant carries wider weight. Special Olympics Nevada has used law-enforcement partnerships in Southern Nevada before, including events on the Las Vegas Strip, but this marks the first Tip a Cop brought to Pahrump. For Nye County, it is a direct display of how a local restaurant, county deputies and Special Olympics athletes can turn one evening’s tips into support for a program that reaches far beyond the dining room.