Dayton woman wins Governor's Points of Light award for senior program

Judy Harris of Dayton, an RSVP and VISTA volunteer, won the Governor's Points of Light Award for volunteerism at a dinner Oct. 20 at the Silver Legacy in Reno, where 170 people attended the dinner to honor the 15 nominees.

Harris and Steve Wiegel of Winnemucca tied for the award for individual service in the rural areas.

"It was thrilling and I was so excited," she said.

A plaque is being made up and Harris won $375, which she donated right back to the RSVP Lifeline's emergency response system's Adopt-a-Senior program in Lyon County.

"That will help low-income Nevada residents to get the emergency response system called Lifeline, which is a button they wear to summon help if they need it," she said.

Harris said nearly the entire staff of RSVP in Carson City joined Harris and her husband, Randy, at the awards dinner.

The letter of nomination submitted by the Nevada Rural Counties RSVP Program noted that "Judy Harris has a passion for making life easier for senior citizens who can no longer perform essential tasks for themselves."

Wednesday's panel on Nevada Newsmakers was discussing the possibility that Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman might enter the governor's race when panelist Ray Hagar, a reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal, said there was no way Goodman would want to live in "podunk Carson City."

Challenged by others on the panel, he elaborated, describing Carson as "the most boring town in the country."

The Carson City Computer Learning Center announces its "Introduction to Computers" graduating classes. Graduates include: Fred Bien, Peggy Lyon, Catherine Mathieson, Elizabeth Petschke, Derva Snider, Wanda Ganbill, Ken Jones, Inge Kessler, Harold Lapp, and Janice Miller.

The next "Introduction to Computers" class will start Tuesday. No classes will meet during the Thanksgiving week.

Interested seniors may contact the Carson Senior Center at 883-0703 ext. 222 for information.

Gov. Kenny Guinn encouraged visitors to many of the events surrounding the Nevada Day holiday weekend to check out the State of Nevada Web site, nv.gov, to view and print pictures of their family and friends.

Pictures from the Nevada Day Parade, the Governor's Chili Feed, the tour of the Governor's Mansion, and also from Halloween night are all available on the Web site.

Instructions for downloading the digital prints taken by State Photographer Richard Johnston are on the Web site.

"Rich Johnston always does a terrific job of taking hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures at these events," Guinn said. "Rich and State Web master Linda DeSantis have taken the extra step of placing all of the pictures on the state's Web site, making it easy and convenient for people to print out these great shots."