Living, giving in Nevada

After a 35-year hiatus from rodeo, Mound House resident Ralph Vance returned to steer wrestling this year and walked away with a buckle - albeit in an unconventional manner.

At 65, Vance was the oldest bull-dogging competitor at the Senior National Pro Rodeo Finals in Winnemucca last week.

During the awards ceremony, Dan Stringari, who won the go-round buckle with a time of 4.1 seconds, presented his buckle to Vance, saying, "He has more heart than anyone I know."

Vance, who dislocated his shoulder and broke his ribs at a rodeo in Wendover in late May, lined his shirt with newspapers to finish out the season.

Vance's fastest run during the finals was 4.7 seconds. For a complete list of winners, go to seniorrodeo.com.

Ethel Schibler of Evergreen Mountain View celebrated her 102nd birthday on Tuesday with a champagne toast and by reading her letter from President Bush.

Ethel was born in Ohio on Nov. 8, 1903. She has lived in Dayton for the past five years and in Carson City at the care home for the last month. Before that she lived in an assisted-living facility.

Schibler worked as a nurse at a Georgia hospital for 24 years.

"I liked Georgia a lot better," she said. "It's a lot warmer. It's wonderful. My grandson lives there and when I phone I always ask him what the temperature is. It's awful chilly here and I'm rather thin and I just can't take the cold."

Results from the first week of Reds Old 395's third annual Hand in Hand fundraiser show guests raised $2,747.68 for local nonprofit organizations during Nov. 1-6.

During the month of November, Red's will donate 10 percent of their diners' total meal tab to the nonprofit of their guest's choice, chosen from a list of the 30 participating organizations - all at no additional cost or obligation to the diner. Last year, the Hand in Hand fundraiser raised nearly $9,600 total.

"We are already outpacing last year's performance, which we're tremendously excited about," explained Gary Anderson, Red's general manager. "Compared to the first week of the campaign in 2004, we're ahead by 22 percent. Last year, about 50 percent of our guests selected a nonprofit to benefit. But we're finding that as the word gets out that it doesn't cost anything extra for our guests to raise funds for nonprofits, more and more people are participating. Our goal this year, is to get as close to 100 percent of guests choosing a charity as possible. I'm happy to report that in the first week, we're tracking close to 90 percent. It goes to show the community spirit in Carson City and our citizens' desire to help these groups raise funds."

At the close of the first week this year, the top five performing groups (in terms of dollars earned by guests selecting their group as beneficiary) are: F.E.A.T of Carson Valley, Boys and Girls Club of Western Nevada, Wylie Animal Rescue Foundation, Advocates to End Domestic Violence and Carson Advocates for Cancer Care.

For information, contact Red's General Manager, Gary Anderson, at 887-0395.