Want to hit the lanes and help fight cancer at the same time? 

The Cheyenne Women’s USBC Bowling Association is taking registrations for its eighth annual Bowl for the Cure event at Two Bar Bowling Lanes.

The April 12-13 event is open to both adults and children. The entry deadline is April 7, or whenever lanes fill up. For more informaiton or an entry form, stop by Two Bar, 700 E. Carlson St., or call Liz Vogel in Cheyenne at 634-6599 or Pat Cote in Carpenter at 307-649-2378.

All proceeds will go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

For this and more ways to give your money, click on “To give your money” on the right side of this page.

Congratulations to 17-year-old Janel Evans, a student at Cheyenne’s Central High, who decided to give up her birthday gifts and party this year to do something good for those less fortunate than her.

Evans told me Tuesday evening that she just decided that helping other people was more important than having a fancy party to show off to her friends or getting gifts she didn’t really need. This selfless teen instead made 85 lunch bags for homeless people at COMEA House and The Salvation Army.

Pete Fetsco at The Salvation Army thought it was such a great thing Evans was doing that he called me to see if we would do a story. Our readers seem to agree with Fetsco. Among the comments posted to the Web version of our front-page story today are: “Kudos to this young lady. I wish we could see more of this ‘giving thing’ by young people in lieu of taking!” and “This is such a wonderful and thoughtful thing. Maybe more of us can catch on.”

Unfortunately, tomorrow’s front-page story will feature three teens who decided to wreak havoc last night on a Cheyenne neighborhood by smashing windows and other vandalism. If only every front page could feature people like Janel instead.

In case you didn’t see the story in today’s newspaper or on WyomingNews.com, you can click here: http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2008/03/27/featured_story/01top_03-27-08.txt

Students and staff at Laramie County Community College made a difference during last week’s “The Beaches of Cheyenne” Alternative Spring Break.

On March 17, they delivered 55 lunches for Meals on Wheels.

On March 18, they painted the kitchen and two walls in the lounge at the Boys and Girls Club of Cheyenne.

On March 19, they tagged and hung hundreds of clothes at Goodwill Industries.

Then on March 20, they were picking up trash on campus and along the highway.

Congratulations and many thanks to all of those who gave up some of their spring break to make a difference in our community!

As of Friday, Warren Federal Credit Union had collected $11,300 for Hands in Harmony.

Marketing manager Michele Bolkovatz said in an e-mail message that the credit union reached its $5,000 match commitment on March 15, with an additional $1,300 coming in after that date.

The credit union pledged to match individual donations dollar-for-dollar up to $5,000 after learning that all of the nonprofit sign language performance group’s money had been embezzled.

I’m sure Hands in Harmony is excited by this news and appreciates the continued support of the community members who donated, as well as Warren Federal Credit Union. 

Kudos to the staff at the new Allstate Express Claims Center in Cheyenne, who presented staff at Safehouse-Sexual Assault Services with seven giant Easter baskets today to give to Safehouse residents.

The baskets were made by seven different teams within the claims center, which is inside the former Trilegiant building in east Cheyenne. Each team had between 10 and 20 members, and they were responsible for paying for and putting together their own baskets.

The baskets are valued at more than $1,200, and they include toys, clothes and gift cards to various local businesses, including memberships at the Cheyenne Family YMCA. In addition, an internal contest was held to determine which basket would get the most votes. Each vote cost 25 cents, with the total raised — estimated at about $50 — given to Safehouse.

What a neat way to have some fun, build teamwork inside the company and spread some holiday joy to those who are currently coming out of a bad situation.

Happy Easter to all!

BRANDON QUESTER/WTE

From left, Wendi McInerney, Angela Lucas, Tom Reams, Shelley Webb, Breayna Enright, and Ginger Sager (front center), from the Allstate Express Claims Center in Cheyenne pose for a photo behind seven giant Easter baskets they donated to Safehouse-Sexual Assault Services. The Allstate group brought baskets with an estimated value of $1,200, which include toys, clothes and gift cards.

Progress is being made in preparations for remodeling the Cranmore home in Cheyenne, but some significant hurdles remain.

Amy Clark-Walters called earlier this week to tell me an anonymous donation of $10,000 came in recently to help the family with the annexation process. But another $20,000 is needed to start construction. The Cheyenne City Council will vote Monday on whether to bend its own rules to allow the Cranmores to qualify for a loan so they can cover the cost of annexation and connect to city water and sewer services.

Clark-Walters and the rest of Community Care Concepts, the new nonprofit organization formed last November, are selling 2,000 raffle tickets at $10 each to help raise money. Prizes include a 32″ LCD HDTV, a laptop computer and an iPod. (For more on the raffle, see “To give your money” at right.)

Material and labor donations to make the Cranmore home handicapped-accessible also are still needed, though Community Care Concepts has secured some major commitments to this project already. (See “To give something” and “To give your time” at right.)

Thanks to all of those who have already helped or committed to help with this project. We’ll continue to provide updates as they come in.

It’s an exciting day in the short history of this blog — we finally got a user comment posted to one of the blog entries!

Many thanks to “Donor,” who posted the following comment to the CAN MAN blog entry:

One Response to “The CAN MAN can (bring in regular food donations)”

1. Donor Says:
   March 19th, 2008 at 11:10 amThis novel idea made it simple for me to donate on a monthly basis. I called Needs to let them know what I wanted to donate. Then, grabbed a couple of those items every time I went to the store.I haven’t noticed the increase in my grocery at check out time but my donation items are really adding up quickly. I should have quite a nice stockpile of this item to donate by the end of each month.SOooo simple!

I also got an e-mail this morning from Olivia Engkvist, office manager at the Wyoming Community Foundation, who had this to say in response to my question in yesterday’s blog entry about whether Google offers anything similar to GoodSearch or Search and Give:

Hi Brian,

Thanks for doing a blog from the press release the Wyoming Community Foundation sent about GoodSearch.com. I see that you’re wondering if Google does anything for charity. They actually do. Check out this part of their Web site: http://www.google.com/nonprofits/index.html

The don’t do anything similar to what GoodSearch is doing, but they do offer free services to help nonprofits improve their Web sites and advertisements.

Have a good day!

Olivia

Thanks to both of you for your feedback, and to the rest of you: Keep those comments coming by clicking on the comments link at the bottom of each blog entry!

Two easy ways to help out local charities and schools without having to dig into your pockets for money are now available through the Internet.

The next time you need to use a search engine to find something, try using either GoodSearch or Search and Give online. Both sites require registration, and you will need to designate a charity or school to receive the donations. But there are plenty of both types of organizations in the Cheyenne area that have signed up and are waiting to receive your donation.

I registered last night with Microsoft’s Search and Give, which uses the Live Windows interface. It took about 10 minutes to register and select a charity. Microsoft does the rest.

The same goes for GoodSearch, which uses the Yahoo search engine. So far I haven’t found such a charity donation application for Google, but if anyone knows of one, please comment below or e-mail me at everyonegives@wyomingnews.com.

For more information, click on “To give your time” on the right side of this page and then get clickin’ and givin’!

While many college students are off this week enjoying a break from studies, others will be working to make a difference here in Laramie County.

During alternative spring break activities, students and staff at Laramie County Community College will work at Meals on Wheels, the Boys and Girls Club of Cheyenne, Goodwill Industries and doing highway cleanup near the college on East College Drive.

Each of these sessions range from an hour-and-a-half to four hours, and those involved will be making a difference for those agencies they serve.

Alternative spring breaks for college students are becoming more popular across the country as students realize their responsibility for helping those less fortunate and making that a priority over going to Florida or Mexico to party. The University of Wyoming has a similar program, which sends students to other parts of the country to rebuild houses destroyed by natural disasters, among other worthy projects.

For more information, or to help out during the week, contact Amanda Hubbard at LCCC at 432-1630 or click on “To give your time” on the right side of this page.

Corinna Seeley, the VISTA volunteer working for Needs Inc., sent me an overview of a new effort Thursday called the CAN MAN Program. I have to say that I was immediately struck by the fact that it was an incredibly clever idea and one that has great potential for helping Needs meet its regular food collection needs in a unique way.

Here’s how the program works: Churches, organizations and businesses are invited to become sponsors of the ongoing CAN MAN food drive. Each group picks one or two nonperishable food items that it wishes to contribute continually.

For example, items that would be collected might be green beans, macaroni and cheese or tuna and Tuna Helper. The goal is to provide Needs with the food items it needs continually, year-round.

According to Seeley’s overview for the “Everyone gives, Everyone gains” project, “CAN MAN simplifies food drives for our sponsors while bringing much-needed stability to Needs Inc.’s pantry.”

For more information about CAN MAN and how to get started, call 632-4132 or click ”To give something” on the right side of this page.