Bear fundraiser

Seeliger Elementary School is having a fundraiser to provide scholarships to former students who are graduating from Carson High School this year.

And the fundraiser is about bears - stuffed teddy bears, that is.

"We've got about 17 bears, and they are decorated any way the person who decorated them wanted to," said third-grade teacher Lenae Dericco.

That includes princess bears, hiking bears and even ice-skating bears - ice-skating being the manner in which Dericco decorated her bear. Bears, actually.

Her donation is several little bears with scarves and hats and ice skates, which are accompanied by Andrew Breakspeare's "Skating With Bears."

"I was looking for books with bears in them, and I just picked that one," she said.

At any time, parents can come into the school and write their name, phone number and bid for the bear on a slip of paper, which goes into a box. The winning bids will be drawn Friday.

The minimum bid is $25. Bids can be made through Thursday.

"We'll send the bears home on Friday, so that parents have them for Valentine's Day if they want to use them for that," Dericco said.

The hope is to raise enough money to give two Carson High School seniors $500 scholarships.

"This is either our fourth or fifth year doing this," Dericco said. "We initially had money donated from the Seeliger family that we decided to use for the scholarship."

The students love looking at the decorated beers.

"They think the bears are great," she said. "The kids are in the hall all the time looking at them."

Cheerleading saga at Carson High

One of the most dramatic bits of news that has come my way recently is that at least five cheerleaders at Carson High School have been relegated to food-service and trash duty at the upcoming Mr. Carson High competition because they signed a petition threatening to boycott the event if all 14 candidates weren't allowed to compete.

Supposedly, some 300 students throughout the school signed the petition in support of having the 14th student in the fundraiser, when there were spaces for only 13.

Ladies, I support your right to express your opinion, but you should know that if you sign something that contains a threat, you should be prepared to deal with the consequences. In short, if you decide to put your name on anything, threat or not, you should be prepared to deal with the results.

Like mortgage payments.

Is it really fair to be angry about something when the results occurred because of your initial actions?

I say nay.

I would say - supposing that staying on the team is a worthwhile endeavor - you should handle the trash and food services with pride. If you don't like that suggestion, follow through on the threat and don't show up at Mr. Carson High at all. We've got all kinds of freedoms in this country, including the freedom of cheerleaders to be rebels. This might get you kicked off the team entirely, but maybe it'll be worth it if what you're learning is that it's unjust to be punished for making a threat.

Think of the money you'll save not buying a dress to escort a Mr. Carson High nominee. You can keep it in your savings account, put it away for college, or save it for those mortgage payments, when, yes, again, you will sign your name to something.

Consider that the best way to express an opinion is directly and to someone. If you feel the need to sign a petition, you might want to frame it as true expression of an opinion, something like "We support the 14th candidate being allowed to compete in Mr. Carson High."

I hope that all 14 candidates will be allowed to participate in Mr. Carson High. It seems like the rules could be bent to allow one more person to compete.

• Contact reporter Maggie O'Neill at moneill@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.