Minden girl to perform at Capital One halftime

Carson Valley Middle School student Whitney Louie is scheduled to perform as part of the Capital One Bowl half-time performance cast on New Year's Day.

The 14-year-old Minden resident has been cheerleading for several years, starting out with Pop Warner. Her mother Renea Louie said she was at a cheerleading camp when she was spotted by a scouting group.

"They told her on the last day of camp they had selected her," Renea said. "We are so proud of her. This is what good kids deserve."

Whitney participates in the Silver Spirit All Star Competitive Cheer Team here.

Renea says it's more competitive than the cheerleading most people are familiar with.

"She does the flip across the front and they build pyramids," Renea said. "She has been practicing her routine."

The routine Whitney has been working on arrived on a DVD. In the week before the show, Whitney and children from all over the nation will gather in Orlando to work together for the first time.

The family will also get to attend the Disney World New Year's Eve party on the night before the big game.

Oh, yea, the game. Michigan is playing Florida. Renea said husband Gary is looking forward to watching Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow perform. Not as much as Whitney, of course, but it is an added treat.

Both Renea's children are native Nevadans. Douglas High junior Shelby played golf for the Tigers this fall.

Renea said the girls were both born at Carson-Tahoe Hospital. The family has lived in the Valley for 20 years.

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The Drive-by Food Drive last Friday gathered a record 48,000 pounds of food from Carson Valley residents, according to chairman Len Frueh.

"Raley's pushed those grocery bags and brought in 20,000 pounds at 5:15 p.m.," Len said.

A couple of last-minute donations resulted in a $26,000 total for money collected for the Carson Valley Community Food Closet.

Len said cash and food will go to provide a quarter million meals during the course of the year.

The monthly meal count provides a barometer on the state of Douglas County's economy.

In November, the food closet distributed a record 34,000 meals, or one meal for pretty much every man, woman and child in Carson Valley. In November 2006, the food closet distributed 24,000 meals.

"It is an interesting barometer on the economy," he said. "What happened along with the housing slump is that many of our clients have been seasonal construction workers. You can really see it hitting home like this."

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In the graphic illustrating the caucus process I made a big error. Where it says "If 30 people attend a precinct meeting" the rest of the sentence should read "it is a sure sign of the impending apocalypse."

My example confused some folks, but it's just about trying to educate people about a very complicated process. The simple answer is that if you want to go to a meeting on Jan. 19 and you're a registered Republican or Democrat, feel free. When the smoke clears, somehow a result you had something to do with will be reported to the world.

n Kurt Hildebrand is editor of The Record-Courier. Reach him at khildebrand@recordcourier.com or 782-5121, ext. 215.