Community entranced by a forest’s magic

Friday, Nov. 29, 2002 | 3:40 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: Nov. 30, 2002

The detail on the tree in the Magical Forest decorated by the North Las Vegas Detention Center caught the eye of members of the Gay and Lesbian Professional Business Association: a small train at the base featured the message "Scared Straight."

The train car with the message that actually refers to a program to keep kids out of trouble seemed to be strategically positioned toward the organization's brightly decorated tree just a couple feet away.

The next day the gay group further adorned its tree -- with plastic fruit.

Such is the playful spirit of the various entities that each year participate in Opportunity Village's Magical Forest. The winter wonderland with an estimated 3 million lights opened Thursday night at 6300 W. Oakey Blvd.

Organizations and businesses make donations to Opportunity Village, which trains and provides jobs for the mentally retarded, for the honor of decorating the trees that an estimated 175,000 visitors will see through Dec. 28.

"We ask the companies to decorate the entire tree and keep it homespun -- make it non-commercial," Magical Forest Manager Jim McCoy said. "They come up with some pretty imaginative and tasteful ideas."

For example, the Hemophilia Thrombosis Center decorated its tree with large red blood drop-shaped ornaments.

"It's a challenge to tell people what we are all about without being commercial, but it's a fun challenge," said Carol Haugen of the Nevada Scuba Retailers Association, which represents seven local scuba stores.

That group adorned its tree with plastic fish ornaments and packages wrapped in scuba gear Christmas paper.

The Magical Forest, in its 11th year, features 200 permanent trees. It started in 1992 as a one-time project when The Mirage, before it opened, placed its boxed trees on Opportunity Village's parking lot during the Christmas season to create an attraction that would help the organization raise money.

The project was so successful that the next year Opportunity Village planted trees for a permanent Christmas attraction.

"The donations of materials we have received to decorate the Magical Forest over the years have been in the millions of dollars," Opportunity Village Development Director Linda Smith said. "The Meadows mall in January gave us its entire Christmas display and we have incorporated that into our decorations."

A few years ago Opportunity Village also received a large boulder set that Scenic Technologies built for a Toyota commercial -- a structure valued at $400,000. It serves as landscape for the 35-passenger Southern Nevada Historical Train Society choo-choo that traverses the forest each night.

Costumed characters such as Ovie the Bear, wearing an outfit created by the wardrobe designers for magicians Siegfreid and Roy, roam the forest to protect it and its visitors, Smith said.

In reality, an intricate alarm system and sophisticated security camera system donated by Cam Watch Systems protects the facility that has been burglarized several times.

"The first time was really brutal, they tore it up, and we were heartbroken," Smith said of that mid-1990s incident. "Many of our clients took it personally and thought the act was done because people didn't like them.

"When the news media reported what had happened, the next day 400 people from all walks of the community showed up to help repair the Magical Forest."

Smith said she was particularly touched when she saw a young man pulling a heavy garbage can and started talking to him. She learned he was a member of the Boyd family of the Boyd Gaming Group.

"I told him we could get him a better job than pulling a garbage can, but he told me there was no better job he could do to help," Smith said.

It was not the last serious vandalism. One theft cost Opportunity Village every Christmas light that was stored in a shed. The donations from the public replaced every lost light and more.

Since the cameras went up a year ago, there have been no such incidents, Smith said.

The forest also features a crafts shed, an enchanted carousel and Santa Claus. It is open daily from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Parking north of Oakey Boulevard and east of Torrey Pines Drive is free.

Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for children. A passport of $12 for adults and $10 for children includes unlimited train and carousel rides.