To say Guy Mann was disturbed by what he read in today’s Wyoming Tribune-Eagle would be an understatement.

As manager of the Culver’s Restaurant on Dell Range Boulevard, Mann has donated portions of his sales to Hands in Harmony and other nonprofit groups through special Monday and Tuesday promotions. So when he read that almost all of the sign language performing group’s money has been embezzled, he said, he felt like the person responsible had stolen from him as well.

But rather than sitting on the sidelines and bemoaning the group’s situation, Mann is pledging another 10 percent of his sales on Saturday, March 22 to Hands in Harmony. He’s also challenging other Cheyenne-area restaurant owners to do the same so the group can make a planned trip to New York City in June.

Any restaurant owner willing to join Mann’s effort should call him ASAP at 778-3166. Those restaurants will be highlighted in a future “Everyone gives, Everyone gains” blog post and story in the newspaper.

Of course, people who want to donate to the group sooner can send a donation to Hands in Harmony, P.O. Box 104, Cheyenne, WY 82003 or call the group at 632-2685.

Hands in Harmony is also helping to host a “Haystack Dinner” from 5-7 p.m. Sunday at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1881, 2816 E. Seventh St. The group will give short performances at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 each and can be purchased at the door or in advance from Hands in Harmony members.

Yes, you read that right — this Saturday, March 1.

Sorry for the short notice, folks, but a work project has been set for Saturday at the home of Michael Weber, 4706 Wright Court, starting at 9 a.m. and lasting four to five hours.

In the interest of full disclosure, this is a project being spearheaded by the Rev. Jon Laughlin, the pastor at my church, Grace United Methodist, with the financial help of Cheyenne, Light, Fuel and Power. I told Pastor Jon that whenever he had a work day put together on this project, we would publicize it and get some community help through “Everyone gives, Everyone gains.”

Weber came to the church’s attention last November, since the church as become a clearinghouse for people who have their power shut off due to inability to pay. Once Pastor Jon went into the house, however, it became clear the house needed a lot of work, including rewiring, which has taken place.

Saturday’s work day is to repair and finish drywall, as well as remove and reinstall one door and install another door. People with skills in those areas who can help Saturday should call 634-7472 or click on “To give your time” at right for more information.

Community Care Concepts is just weeks away from a planned start of the home makeover for the Cranmore family of Cheyenne. This new nonprofit group desperately needs to finish lining up skilled tradesmen or other individuals with experience in framing, plumbing, electrical, insulation, roofing, flatwork, painting, flooring (carpet, tile, hardwood), carpentry and siding.

The group also is seeking donations of plumbing, electrical and appliances, as well as money for this project, which is scheduled to begin in April.

According to its Web site, the group has secured about 80 percent of the materials and labor needed, but just needs a last group of commitments to make the project a reality.

In case you missed the earlier blog entry about this project, Todd Cranmore was diagnosed with secondary progressive Multiple Sclerosis six years ago. Because the disease is rapidly progressing, the family is faced with financial hardships, has a house in need of many repairs and needs to have changes made so the house will be handicapped accessible.

For more information on this worthwhile project, or to volunteer to help, call Amy Clark-Walters at 214-1460. Donations can be sent to Community Care Concepts, P.O. Box 3114, Cheyenne, WY 82003. All donations are tax-deductible, and all contributors will be recognized at the end of the project.

Peggy Franz over at Ewe Count on Randall Avenue has a new opportunity for those who have talents involving yarn (knitting and crocheting).

Starting tomorrow and continuing every Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon, anyone who would like to help out can come to her shop at 819 Randall and work on one of four projects:

Warm Up America is a charitable foundation for knitters and crocheters to make 7-inch-by-9-inch blocks. These blocks are assembled into afghans, which are then donated locally to the COMEA House, The Salvation Army and Home Away From Home. Find out more at www.warmupamerica.org.

Caps For Kids is in partnership with Save the Children. Caps are made to be given to the less fortunate. Locally caps have been given to STRIDE Learning Center to be distributed in their Thanksgiving baskets, among other places.

The Red Scarf Project gives scarves to orphaned teens attending college. These scarves are distributed nationwide on Valentine’s Day. Find out more at www.orphan.org.

Prayer shawls are being made to be distributed to the nursing homes. Find out more at www.friendshipshawl.org.

In the past 13 years, Franz said, more than 350 afghans and 500 caps have been donated!

Of course, if you have unused yarn that you would like to donate, Franz would gladly accept those donations.

Especially on these cold winter days, what better use of time and talent than to help someone in need?

It should be common knowledge by now that reading to children starting at infancy (or even before they are born) leads to literacy, and not doing so can set children back in their education.

Yet a national survey indicates that just 39 percent of parents read or looked at a picture book with their infants daily, according to Raising Readers in Wyoming. The survey also showed that one in six people said they had never read to their infants at all. Also, just 37 percent of 3- to 5-year-olds visited a library once a month.

These statistics surprised me when I read the Raising Readers in Wyoming brochure. Hopefully we’re beating those numbers here in Cheyenne, where we have a beautiful new Laramie County Library that continues to offer many programs for children and their parents designed to encourage parents to read to children and to get children to read more on their own.

Yet even if that is true, there is room for the Raising Readers in Wyoming program. Here’s how it works:

The program gives new age-appropriate books to children’s health-care providers and immunization clinics. When children and their parents come in for well-child visits at 2,4,6, 12, 15 and 18 months, and at 2, 3, 4 and 5 years of age, they get one of the new books and a “prescription to read.”

A special event is being planned for April at the Cheyenne Family YMCA to raise money for Raising Readers in Wyoming and awareness of the issue. In the meantime, the group needs your donations to help pay for the new books it hands out statewide. To find out how to donate, click on “To give your money” at right. And keep reading this blog for details about the April event as it approaches.

Everyone probably knows someone who has been affected by cancer. We know people who have succumbed to the disease and those who have beat it back.

Do something special this year and honor all of them by buying a bouquet of daffodils from the American Cancer Society.

Daffodil Days bouquets are on sale until Feb. 25, and the daffodils are available the week of March 17, which is the week leading up to Easter. Having had the bouquets in our church for several years in a row now, I can say that they brighten any room and serve as a great reminder of the symbolic (and, in a way, literal) rebirth that comes from recovering from cancer.

Of course, not everyone is able to beat cancer, but that’s why it’s so important to help the American Cancer Society and its efforts to find a cure and help those who are suffering.

Can you spare $8 to add some beauty to the world and help those who are suffering? If so, click on “To give your money” at right and find out how to buy a bunch of 10 daffodils this week.

The best community outreach programs come from someone seeing a need that’s not being met and responding immediately to meet that need.

Such an effort began last September when employees at the Cheyenne law firm of Holland and Hart started the Friday Food Bags program.

Heather Canarecci, who chairs the Holland and Hart Foundation Committee, sent me an e-mail last week to let me know about this wonderful program. In it, she wrote: “The Friday Food Bag program addresses the hunger experienced by many children and adolescents over the weekend when the free and reduced cost meals provided at school are not available. Even if one child in our community goes hungry from Friday afternoon until Monday morning, that is one child too many and unfortunately there are many facing this situation each week.”

The need is so great, in fact, that the law firm has distributed more than 1,700 food bags since the program began.

Canarecci said the food bags contain healthy, nonperishable foods that do not require cooking. “We worked with a nutritionist to develop a plan that allows us to provide approximately three servings of protein and three servings of fruit, in addition to other nutritious snacks, for about $4 per bag,” she wrote in the e-mail.

So what can you do? Donate money to the program. Although the law firm and its staff have given $8,000 to the program, it will take another $3,000 to finish this school year and $13,000 a year after that.

For more information about the program, see today’s Wyoming Tribune-Eagle and click on “To give your money” at right.

More good news to report today:

Customers and employees at the 11 Safeway stores in Wyoming raised $60,000 last fall for the Wyoming Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

During October, Safeway checkers — including those in Cheyenne — asked customers to donate money. The response was overwhelming.

According to a news release, 75 percent of the money raised will stay in Wyoming to help raise breast cancer awareness and help Wyoming residents fight the disease. The remaining 25 percent of net proceeds goes to the Komen Foundation’s Research Program to help fund breast cancer research.

Grants to help fund education, screening and treatment have been made across the state.

To learn more about Komen’s efforts, visit http://komenwyoming.org.

Attention “Guitar Hero” fans of all ages! Youth Alternatives/Special Friends is hosting a special video game tournament Saturday at the Laramie County Library, starting with registration at 11 a.m. The special event is free and open to the public.

But it’s more than just a video game tourney. Organizer Adam Keizer said the event also is designed to educate and potentially sign up new mentors for at-risk youth in the community.

“We just wanted to show that mentoring is as easy as spending two hours (a week) playing video games,” Keizer told me today. He has been a mentor for two years and currently meets weekly with an 8-year-old boy.

For more on the event or the need for mentors, contact Keizer at 631-9309 or e-mail him at either adamkeizer@gmail.com or sfguitarhero@guitarhero.com. More information also can be found by clicking “To give your time” at right.

(Got a good volunteer story to share? Click on the link below this blog entry called and post your comment!)

The American Red Cross is well-known for being quickly on the scene of natural disasters like the tornadoes that struck Tennessee and surrounding states earlier this week.

Volunteers also are on the scene quickly to lend a hand when local families suffer tragedies like house fires. Now they are reaching out and asking for people to help them — by donating money and becoming Red Cross volunteers.

To find out what you can do, click on “To donate your money” and “To give your time” at right.