Silver Dollars & Wooden Nickels: Silver dollars to some gold: Rain

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 Mother Nature, for sending us some much-needed rain. More than 2 inches of precipitation fell last week, giving the ground a good soaking without being so much as to cause flooding. The golf courses are looking emerald green, too. All we need is another round of mild Indian summer so we can enjoy this extended period of beautiful weather outdoors.

Silver dollar: To the Carson High School students who put together Student Zeal, a student newspaper that was included in the Tuesday edition of the Nevada Appeal. Under the hardworking leadership of editor Skyler Greenman, the students sold ads, wrote stories and columns and produced a publication they can be proud of. Kudos to Skyler, Caitlin Cosens, Josh Van Sickle, David Eckberg, Emma Kortemeier, Rachel Brodt, Jessica Peterson, Sydney Wirkus, Reece Gibb, Caitlin Sinclair and Jeremiah Bentley.

Silver dollar: To all who have added their names to the national bone marrow donor registry. Dayton father Vinod Challagundla, in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant to combat myelofibrosis, had found one match among the 15,000 people tested at drives in his honor. For whatever reason, the one person whose marrow matched Challagundla's backed out, leaving Vinod and his family devastated. But to all those who were tested and stand ready to help if called, bless you. If you'd like to join them - it's a simple, painless procedure, all it takes is a mouth swab to be tested - go to www.marrow.org/JOIN/index.

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