Karen Woodmansee/Nevada AppealGracie Jeremia and Ryan Uhlmeyer painted the foundation of Piper's Opera House recently, working with 50 other members of the Circle K youth organization, affiliated with the Kiwanis.
They didn't get much chance to paint the town, but about 50 young people from area colleges came to Virginia City recently and painted parts of Piper's Opera House.
For the second year in a row, Circle K of the University of Nevada, Reno, a youth service group affiliated with Kiwanis International, came to the venerable opera house to help out, have lunch and hold a meeting to install new members.
Dick Stoll, executive director of the opera house, said the group did good work.
"They clean up their messes and everything," he said.
Last year, the group painted the wainscoting inside the performance hall, and this year they took on the exterior foundation on the north side of the building, as well as parts of the lobby.
Alex Kieu, a UNR sophomore in charge of the day's events, said most of the students were from UNR, others came from the University of California at Davis, the University of California at Berkeley, Sacramento State University and Sierra College.
Most of the members are girls, but Kieu said she was happy to see more males join this year.
The group participates in work projects all over the area, most recently helping with the Special Olympics in bowling in Reno and food and toy drives for the holiday.
She said the group plans to continue to help out at Piper's.
"This is such a beautiful place to have the installation of new members," she said.
She was inducted into the Circle K at Piper's last year and ran the event this year.
One of this year's new members, Thanh Truong, 19, said the groups volunteer work brought him into the fold.
"I like to do community service," he said, "and I get to meet all these people."
- Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 881-7351.