The Nevada Appeal's "Silver Dollar" and "Wooden Nickel" feature recognizes positive achievements from the capital region and, when warranted, points out others that missed the mark.
Silver Dollar: A big silver nugget to the Carson Nugget for its annual tradition of providing free Thanksgiving Day turkey dinners to the community.
The landmark Carson casino served about 1,000 people this year.
"I think it's great that they (Nugget) do this for people," said one woman at the dinner. "I don't know what people would do without this, especially all those people with little children."
Wooden Nickel: Some holiday assistance programs are finding it difficult to meet the demands created by the current economic downturn.
A recent coat drive by the Kids in Transition Program, which serves children living in motels, hotels, campgrounds or doubling up with other families, didn't collect enough coats for everyone on its request list.
To donate, call program director Jeannette Famoso at 283-1526.
Silver Dollar: The Nevada Appeal has compiled a list of organizations and businesses doing something to help the community during the holidays. The list will appear in the newspaper regularly during the holiday season or visit www.nevada
appeal.com/helping.
To submit information, e-mail editor
@nevadaappeal.com, subject line Holiday Help.
Silver Dollar: A sliver of silver in the otherwise cloudy economy - for the first time since February 2008, the percentage of Nevadans out of work went down in October. That translates to 175,300 Nevadans looking for a job instead of 190,700 in September.
Editor's note: Send your idea's for Silver Dollars and Wooden Nickels to editor@nevadaappeal.com