Another big check for Booth Hall

It’s going to be one honey of a kitchen.

The Boys and Girls Clubs of the Lewis Clark Valley recently announced that retired Lewiston businesswoman Melva Prasil is donating $500,000 toward the completion of a new commercial kitchen in Booth Hall. And since Prasil’s grandkids and younger friends all call her Honey, they’ve decided that the new facility will be called Honey’s Kitchen.

The name also fits with Prasil’s love of cooking. She downplayed her culinary skills, however, which she developed out of necessity.

“My mother was a horrible cook,” Prasil said with a laugh. “She fed us, but I still don’t eat gray meat. So, when I was out on my own, I started cooking. And I just figured out if you follow recipes, things turn out.”

Prasil said she has been thinking of the donation ever since the club bought the former school gymnasium from the Lewiston School District last year, along with much of the remaining Normal Hill property that used to be the high school campus. Prasil and her husband, Rob, have been long-time club supporters, and Director of Resource Development Andrea Neumayer suggested Prasil could teach cooking classes in the planned commercial kitchen once Booth Hall is remodeled.

“So I got to thinking, and I thought, well, I can do more than that,” she said. “So that’s when it started, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.”

Prasil’s gift comes on the heels of a $3.2 million donation toward the Booth Hall renovation made by Ed and Beatriz Schweitzer and their company, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, earlier this month. She expressed hope that the large allotments wouldn’t make people think that organizations like the Boys and Girls Clubs don’t need any more help. To the contrary, she said people should look to the generosity of others as inspiration to contribute whatever they can to their communities.

Melva and Rob Prasil recently sold their Ida Vend and Pepsi distribution companies, and now Melva Prasil said she is “95% retired.” Her nickname came from a friend of her daughter, whose kids call their grandmother “Honey.”

“Well, I’ll be pretty much anything but ‘Grandma,’ ” Prasil said of her response when her daughter Cheri Dickerson asked if “Honey” was a good fit. “I said ‘I love it. I think it’s great. I’ll be Honey.’ And I was enraptured with the idea of Honey’s Kitchen.”

Again, the idea for the kitchen name came from Dickerson, she said.

Club Executive Director Jon Evans gave the Prasils a tour of the campus earlier this week that solidified their commitment. Melva Prasil marveled over Evans’s ability to see the future in a group of aging buildings that need substantial investments before they can be put to full use.

“Jon’s vision is just unbelievable,” she said. “I can’t even figure out how they can look at what they’ve got, and see it finished. How could you not want to help?”

In an email to the Tribune, Evans called Prasil a “force of nature” when she was on the club’s board, with passion and leadership in the face of any obstacle. Prasil set a high bar among her fellow club boosters, serving a term as board president, spending time on its executive committee and chairing several auctions.

“Melva’s passion for our kids and our clubs didn’t end when she went off the board,” Evans wrote. “When she retired from the board, she was given the honor of Director Emeritus by her board colleagues to recognize all of the outstanding work that she did as a champion for youth in our community. Since that time she has remained actively involved with our clubs, our board and our staff, and she continues to make our organization a priority, for which we are all very grateful.”

Evans has previously said he doesn’t yet know if the recent Booth Hall donations will be enough to finish the project. Project architects will be conducting assessments and drawing up designs over the next several months, with cost estimates expected this summer.

Prasil said that if her contribution isn’t enough to cover things like equipment for the kitchen, she will consider making another donation. She and Rob have been involved with the clubs since they moved to Lewiston 39 years ago, and they aren’t about to stop now.

“It’s just important to me that we are able to help kids have what they need.”

Mills may be contacted at jmills@lmtribune.com.