Cheers to Max Lamm, a sixth grader at Mars Centennial School, and his guide dog, Seal. Max, who is blind, relies on Seal to get around.

Max's courage and persistence has inspired his classmates and the faculty, so much so that two Mars School District principals have launched a fundraiser to help others facing the same challenges.

The fundraising events took place at Centennial School and Mars Middle School to raise money for MIRA Foundation U.S.A., which provides guide dogs, free, to visually impaired youths aged 11 to 17.

The fundraiser was put on by fifth- through eighth-grade pupils in the two schools who brought in donations for MIRA in exchange for the privilege of wearing their favorite sports jerseys to school on Friday. MIRA comes from the Latin word for sight.

Max and Seal teamed up in July 2012, starting with a rigorous monthlong training course at the MIRA training facility near Montreal.

Because all MIRA dogs are provided free, dog recipients are encouraged to raise money to cover the $60,000 cost of a dog for others who will get a dog in the future.

Centennial Principal Todd Lape and middle school Principal Rich Cornell were compelled to get involved. Max's sister attends the middle school.

Lape says having Seal in school has been nothing but positive all the way around. He was thrilled, he says, to help MIRA after seeing the level of independence Max was able to achieve with Seal's help.

And perhaps the best part: The other pupils have gotten so used to seeing Seal at school that they hardly notice him anymore. Max is able to fit in, just like any other Centennial pupil.

The case of alleged pot-trafficking grandma Candace Kelly reminds us of the “Spanky and Our Gang” episode about shoplifting a watermelon — the little thief left unmolested because nobody in the store believed a child would actually try to steal something that big.But Kelly, 64, trafficked large quantities of pot out of her mobile home on Kepple Road in Buffalo Township — and nobody suspected a thing, authorities said.The state attorney general's office filed fresh charges Tuesday accusing Kelly of selling as much as 100 pounds of marijuana a year since 2009, at a rate of $3,400 per pound.In October, members of the state police Western Pennsylvania Drug Interdiction Unit got a tip and a search warrant. They found 64 pounds of high-grade marijuana, two pounds of psychedelic mushrooms, three pounds of hashish and $392,000 in Kelly's mobile home. Narcotics officers said Kelly led them straight to the suitcases stuffed with freeze-dried pot.The entire investigation took less than three hours — it happened so quickly, prosecutors said, that they withdrew preliminary charges so they could perform a more thorough investigation.Charges filed last week by the state attorney general were recommended by a grand jury.The big question remains: Who was her supplier? Trooper Jeff Brautigam, of the state police Western Pennsylvania Drug Interdiction Unit, described the confiscated marijuana as high-grade and potent, meaning it was cultivated by an expert — someone well established in the illegal drug trade. Such people don't do business with amateurs.It can only be assumed Kelly is not an amateur, either — although it's easy to draw the conclusion she was good at her role specifically because of her appearance.Like the kid shoplifting the watermelon, appearances can be deceiving.

A cheer of gratitude to Jillian O’Neil. The 1992 Mars High School graduate, actress and film producer, donated her time and talent to help promote the restoration of Glade Run Lake.When O’Neil returned to the area in 2011, she took her two young children to show them the place where many of her happiest childhood memories were formed — only to discover the lake had been drained.She then learned of the Glade Run Lake Conservancy and its efforts to have the faulty dam rebuilt and the lake restored. She decided to commit her production company to help raise awareness of the conservancy and its efforts.With the conservancy board’s blessing, O’Neil produced and directed a 30-second commercial deploring the drained lake and encouraging viewers to support the conservancy.The commercial aired regionally between Thanksgiving and New Year’s on Nickelodeon, Fox, CNN and sports channels and during previews at five movie theaters.Cheers also to the commercial’s 25-member cast and crew, who donated their time, as did the editor and cinematographer.The commercial was shot in one day in September at the lake. O’Neil says she’s planning to produce two more.That’s just fine with the conservancy, says its vice president, Bonnie Chappel, since the conservancy’s aim is to keep its cause in front of the public.