Thursday, Feb. 29, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
HENDERSON -- The traffic headed to the Galleria at Sunset mall was backed up to U.S. 95, but the real jam was inside.
The Disney-frosted, balloon-festooned, pyrotechnics-topped grand opening enticed thousands of parents and children to the new mall Wednesday morning to play stroller derby.
As Kerri Ruth, an employee at the stroller-clogged Disney Store, put it: "Just watch your toes."
Elena Strnad, while impressed with the well-appointed, 114-store shopping opportunity stretching out before her, admitted to being a bit hampered by her double-wide, twin-toting eight-wheeler and its contents.
"If they'd let us shop," she said of her two 3 1/2-year-old sons Frank and Rudy, "I think it would be great."
Instead, Strnad said she'd been spending her time bumping into other strollers at several of the Disney character shows staged around the mall.
Still, the young mother and her friend Vilma Rivere held out hope of hitting Dillards and a few other clothing stores.
To look or spend?
The two women glanced at each other.
"Probably spend," Rivere said with a smile.
"You know women," said Strnad, breaking into laughter. "What kind of question is that?"
But first, they had to visit Winnie the Pooh.
Not all the kids in attendance, however, were small enough to be parent-propelled or fascinated with Pooh bear.
Sue Kotch, for example, allowed her 11-year-old son, Jacob, to skip school for the big event.
"I think it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing, seeing a mall opening," she said. "It's important for the kids to see. We don't get to see things like this that often."
That rationalization worked for middle-schoolers Katie Carra and Bianca Garza as well.
"We figured it's going to be a real big thing," said 14-year-old Carra.
"It's not like we do this all the time," chimed in 13-year-old Garza.
"This is a pretty big event, really," Carra said. "It's not every day you get to go to a new mall opening."
The girls, who attend nearby White Middle School, gave the million-square-foot mall top grades.
"I think it's great," Carra said. "It's going to be the best mall in Nevada."
Green Valley resident Georgia Calabrese was also "thrilled to death" that the new mall had opened at Sunset Road and Stephanie Street.
As her 4-year-old stroller-jockey, Cody, gaped at Mickey Mouse waving from a firetruck cherry picker during the opening festivities, Calabrese said she used to have to drive to the Boulevard Mall to shop.
"Now that this is so close," she said, "when my husband gets home from work, I'll still have time to go."
That may not be great news to her husband, but it was music to the ears of Gregory Vilkin, an executive with Forest City Enterprises, the Los Angeles-based firm that built the mall.
"It's fabulous," exulted Vilkin as he surveyed the massive, topiaried, people-packed food court. "It's our best mall opening ever.
"We're 95 percent occupied. We estimate there are 12,000 to 15,000 people here and it's only 11 in the morning on a workday. So we're extremely pleased."
By noon, the pleasure was wearing off for Teresa Anunciation, who was carrying 1-year-old Adam in a backpack and 2-year-old Alex in her arms as she looked for her husband and oldest son.
"It's fun," said the diminutive, obviously flagging mom, "but it's tiring.
"It's a mall," she concluded without enthusiasm.
Husband Derek, however, was still upbeat.
"It was awesome, incredible," he said. "It'll be a great benefit to the community."
Derek said he was amazed at how many parents and children showed up.
"It's obvious what the valley is all about now," he said. "There are a lot of kids. It's not just a casino town anymore."
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