Silver Dollars & wooden nickels: Fire quickly contained by quick response

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: To our local firefighters who kept a raging Curry Street house fire from spreading to other homes and businesses in the historic Carson City neighborhood. Those 100-year-old houses are like tinder, and quick action by Carson's fire department kept the damage to a minimum. And another dollar to Denise Repp, who spotted the smoke and alerted homeowners Kathleen Stevens and Elizabeth Nix to get out in time, perhaps preventing a much worse tragedy.

Silver Dollar: To Glen Martin, who doesn't let his 92 years keep him on the bench. The nonagenarian has been teaching strength and balance exercise classes for the past 15 years at the senior center - keeping himself and his "students" going ... and going ... and going ....

Silver Dollar: From one extreme to the other: Hats off to 10-year-old Sage Donnelly of Carson City, who won an amazing five gold medals in kayak competitions at the Junior Olympics in July, as well as a handful of other medals during a summer of touring the country. It will be very exciting to watch what's next for this talented water sprite.

Silver Dollar: To the volunteers who came out to scour the hills and roads around Silver Springs in the search for missing 73-year-old Peggy Herlacher. Nevadans are at their best when they rise up to help their neighbors. We hope Herlacher's family soon finds an answer to the mystery of her whereabouts, bringing them some measure of peace.