PBS Reno has announced the winners of the 2024 Spotlight Awards & Auction. On Friday, September 20, 2024, the Silver Legacy Resort Casino’s Grande Exposition Hall in downtown Reno welcomed more than 570 guests for PBS Reno’s largest fundraiser of the year, which yielded $383,580 for PBS Reno’s educational outreach, local programs, and other services enjoyed by the community.

Carson Tahoe Mallory Behavioral Health Crisis Center won the Spotlight Award for Extraordinary Business. Jett Pro Cleaning Services and Panattoni Development Company were the other two finalists recognized in this category.

Food Bank of Northern Nevada won the Spotlight Award for Extraordinary Community Group. Katie Grace Foundation and Assistance League Reno-Sparks were the other two finalists recognized in this category.

Sylvia Gonzalez, Director of Client Services at Domestic Violence Resource Center, won the Spotlight Award for Extraordinary Individual. Ann Silver, CEO of Reno+Sparks Chamber of Commerce, and Emma White, Youth Suicide Prevention Coordinator at Nevada Department of Education, were the other two finalists recognized in this category.

Tim Wood, band director at Swope Middle School, won the Spotlight Award for Extraordinary Educator. Jim Verdi, Principal at Spanish Springs Elementary School, and Bobby del Carlo, a postdoctoral researcher at University of Nevada, Reno, were the other two finalists recognized in this category.

Sophie Marks, a senior at Reno High School, won the Spotlight Award for Extraordinary Student. Cooper Sandoval, a sophomore at McQueen High School, and Ethan Wu, a freshman at Oxford College at Emory University, were the other finalists recognized in this category. 

“We are so pleased to have the honor of presenting our Spotlight Awards to so many deserving individuals and organizations, whose work has been voted on by our community,” said Kurt Mische, PBS Reno President and CEO. “We are impressed with the quality and quantity of the nominees. And it is so important for us to recognize and thank community leaders like Rick Reviglio, who set such a positive example of giving for all of us.”

PBS Reno honored Rick Reviglio as the 2024 Extraordinary Philanthropist of the Year. Reviglio is President and General Manager of Western Nevada Supply. Born to Jack and Rosalie Reviglio, Rick was raised in northern Nevada where he grew up immersed in the family business. His upbringing shaped him into a passionate Nevadan and patriotic American, and to this day, he strongly believes that everyone has a duty to serve. It is this intense passion to serve that makes up his character and pushes him to lead others. Rick lives a life of giving inspired by his father who said, “When we meet our creator, he is not going to ask us what kind of house we lived in, what kind of car we drove or how many toys we had. He is going to ask us: What did you do to make a difference in your fellow man?”

“The event was so meaningful and I enjoyed being surrounded by my family, friends, and the northern Nevada community,” said Reviglio. “It was such an honor to be standing in the shadows of all the greats who have made our community one of the best in America. Thank you, PBS Reno and northern Nevada, for everything you have meant to me and our family!”

About PBS Reno

As of February 2024, PBS Reno is enjoyed by more than 288,000 monthly viewers in northern and central Nevada and northeastern California across several platforms including three broadcast channels (PBS Reno 5.1, Reno Create 5.2, and PBS KIDS on PBS Reno 5.3), a YouTube channel, YouTube TV, online, livestreams, and digital platforms. PBS Reno provides PBS national programming and award-earning, locally-produced content, with many local segments posted weekly to PBS Reno’s YouTube Channel. PBSReno.org provides engaging interactive content, including the video portal at watch.PBSReno.org that streams all locally-produced content and most PBS national content. PBS Reno serves students, teachers, parents and caregivers through immersive educational services including Curiosity Classroom workshops that bring classroom lessons to life with standards-based lessons and activities. Through the support of local corporations and foundations, as well as thousands of individual members, PBS Reno has been delivering public television and educational services to the communities it serves since September 29, 1983.