Silver Dollars & Wooden Nickels: Silver for big hearted bone marrow donors

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 Vinod Challagundla of Dayton, who has some pretty amazing friends. Challagundla needs a transplant to combat a bone marrow disease, myelofibrosis. His friends from across the U.S. joined together and sponsored an astonishing 164 bone marrow drives in 21 states that added 15,000 names to the national bone marrow registry. Among those 15,000 was a match for Challagundla, who will begin the process next month.

Silver Dollar: To the Mason Valley Boys & Girls Clubs, for expanding into Dayton to provide safe before- and after-school activities for students there. After the previous program ended due to budget cuts, the Boys & Girls Club stepped up and started a program for Dayton Elementary. Enrollment at the summer program was high enough to warrant a summer program at each elementary school in both the mornings and afternoons.

Wooden Nickel: To the lapse that allowed a Fritsch Elementary School student to go missing for a short while last week.

Turns out the 5-year-old boy had gone to the Boys & Girls Club and was completely safe, but any parent who has ever lost sight of their child even for a moment in a crowd knows that feeling of panic the mother must've felt. All elementary schools should have a checklist of which students are taking a bus, being picked up or getting other transportation home, especially for the younger grades. Our hearts pound just thinking about what must have been going through that poor mother's mind. It should never happen again.

Silver Dollar: To the family of the late Gov. Kenny Guinn, whose request for donations to the Millennium Scholarship in lieu of flowers or other remembrances has added more than $75,000 to the fund. We can't think of a better way to honor the governor who created the scholarship that has helped thousands of Nevada students attend college.