Silver Dollars and Wooden Nickels 3-15

The Nevada Appeal's "Silver Dollars" and "Wooden Nickels" feature recognizes positive achievements from the Capital region and, when warranted, points out others that missed the mark.

Silver dollar: Carson City competitors at the recent Special Olympics World Winter Games in Boise, Idaho, brought home six medals.

Michael LaBracque captured gold in the 200-meter snowshoe race and a silver in the 4-by-400 snowshoe relay. Shawn and Colleen Stainbrook won two silver and two bronze medals between them.

The athletes train with volunteer coach Barron Lauderbaugh. Each of the Carson competitors is now in training for walking and running events in the 2011 Summer Games in Greece.

Silver dollar: Carson High School's culinary arts team brought home top honors last month in state competition at Las Vegas " the school's third consecutive first-place finish.

Team members Brandon Gray, Tracy Morris, Brittany Shirey and Jonathan Kaye now have their sights set on the national high school competition next month in San Diego. Winning team members receive full-ride scholarships to the culinary college of their choice.

Wooden nickel: Like a bad wooden penny, this item seems to keep turning up every month. The most recent statistics show the state unemployment rate rose to 9.4 percent in January, nearly 2 percent above the then-national average of 7.6 percent. Carson City's jobless rate hit double digits at 11.1 percent.

Silver dollar: A recent Nevada Appeal story detailed the efforts of residents training and participating in the St. Mary's Hospice Volunteer program. Based in Reno, the program's service area includes Carson City.

Hospice volunteers provide respite care for the family or caregiver of a terminally ill person, most often in their own home.

"Anyone who has the heart to help people" is welcome to volunteer, according to coordinator Nancy Mallory. However, becoming a hospice volunteer "is not for everybody because it's a challenging job," Mallory said.

St. Mary's offers hospice training twice a year. The next class is scheduled in August.

For information, call Mallory at 770-6008.

- Editor's note: Do you have a suggestion for a Silver Dollar or Wooden Nickel award? Send your idea to editor@nevadaappeal.com.