Volunteer guitarist needed for annual Walk in My Shoes fund-raiser on June 9

From Virginia Sellner, Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless:

I've asked my friends
to brave Wyoming's winds
on the second Saturday in June
to raise funds for those in need.

The Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless in Cheyenne needs a volunteer to play guitar for those participating in the annual Walk In My Shoes fund-raiser on June 9. Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. Walk takes off at 9:00 a.m. from the main WCH building at 907 Campbell.

Food, fun, door prizes, music, and more. Bring your children, your dogs (on a leash), your friends, family, club members, church members, employees/employers.

Click on the links below to sign up as a ghost walker/walker http://www.wch.vcn.com/walkregis11.htm, (this is for June 9, 2012) or as a sponsor at http://www.wch.vcn.com/sponsorregis.htm
For more information contact Virginia at 634-8499, Mon - Fri from 10 am until 2 pm

Award-winning "Kicked Out" features foreword by Casper's Judy Shepard

Casper's Judy Shepard wrote the foreword to the new anthology edited by Sassafras Lowrey, "Kicked Out." Last night, the book received a major literary award. Here's info from Lowrey's web site:

Last night Kicked Out received a HUGE honor and was not only included in the American Library Association’s Over the Rainbow booklist for 2011, but was also included in their Top 11 books of 2011!    Being included is a tremendous honor, and one which will help get Kicked Out into even more libraries across the country, and thus the hands of folks who need its messages the most. You can see all the books included in the top 11 as well as the full Over the Rainbow book list here

I’m so grateful to the American Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table and its Jurors  for honoring Kicked Out.

Here's a description from the book jacket:

In the U.S., 40% of homeless youth identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ). Kicked Out brings together the voices of current and former homeless LGBTQ youth and tells the forgotten stories of some of our nation’s most vulnerable citizens. Diverse contributors share stories of survival and abuse with poignant accounts of the sanctuary of community and the power of creating chosen families. Kicked Out highlights the nuanced perspectives of national organizations such as The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and The National Alliance Against Homelessness and regional agencies, including Sylvia’s Place, The Circus Project and Family Builders. This anthology, introduced by Judy Shepard, gives voice to the voiceless and challenges the stereotypical face of homelessness. To learn more, visit us online at KickedOutAnthology.com

Triumph High's Z-Club sells handmade mugs for COMEA House fund-raiser

From a press release:

A student club at Triumph High School that focuses on advancing the status of women is sponsoring a fundraiser for the COMEA House homeless shelter, urging contributors to get "mugged" for women’s rights.

The "mugged" part of the event comes from the student-made ceramic mugs that will be sold for $25. Cheyenne area artists also have donated mugs for the cause. The Z-Club, the student version of Zonta Club International, will hold the event 5-7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31, at Triumph’s new school, 1250 W. College Dr., Cheyenne.

Z-Club members also will sell its yellow rose pins and T-shirts.

Zonta is a global organization of executives and professionals working together to advance the status of women through service and advocacy. Zonta members volunteer talent and money to local and international service projects aimed at women’s education, leadership and youth development.

Triumph High School is the alternative high school in Laramie County School District One. Students must apply to attend, and they accept a shared responsibility agreement with faculty and staff. The curriculum features an advisor/advisee program, multi-age grouping, classes that are open to most students in grades 9-12, traditional and nontraditional pathways to graduation and an evening open-entry, open-exit program.

COMEA House provides meals and safe and secure emergency shelter to homeless adults and families 365 days a year. Funds raised through the Z-Club’s "mugged" project will help to cover the shelter’s operations and services, which provide more than 16,000 nights of shelter to some 1,600 men, women and families annually. In addition, COMEA House serves thousands of meals every month to people staying at the shelter and others in the community. Supportive services are provided through a case manager, connecting the clients to community services that identify steps to self-sufficiency.

For more information about COMEA House and how to help the homeless in our community, contact Executive Director Teresa Garrido at 632-3174.

"Jump Into Jewels" Feb. 28 in Cheyenne

Habitat for Humanity Women Build Project presents "Jump Into Jewels" on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 1126 White Water Court (The Pointe) in Cheyenne. More than 15,000 new and lightly used jewelry have been donated to to this Habitat project.

There will be VIP Champagne Brunch and Preview Party between 10 a.m.-noon. Tickets are $15 per person. You can purchase tickets online at http://www.cheyennehabitat.org, or by calling 307-214-1457.

From noon-8 p.m., "Jump Into Jewels" is free and open to the public.

Artists make bowls to benefit homeless

The third annual Empty Bowls event is set for Monday, April 27, at the Holiday Inn, 204 West Fox Farm Road, Cheyenne, to benefit the COMEA House homeless shelter.

Cheyenne school children and youth, and local and national professional artists will create and decorate bowls that will be filled with a hearty soup, for the tax-deducible price of admission of $10. The soup will be accompanied with bread and a beverage.

The event is from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and includes a silent auction, entertainment, and a keynote address by Wyoming’s First Lady, Nancy Fruedenthal.

Empty Bowls was begun by junior high school teachers three years ago to help raise awareness of poverty in Cheyenne.

The COMEA House provides temporary emergency shelter to single men and women, and short-term shelter for families with the support of United Way of Laramie County, the City of Cheyenne, federal funding, and a variety of local agencies, businesses, churches and individuals. The COMEA House also operates a Transitional Living Program for clients needing housing support as they transition into self-sufficiency.

The tax-deductible support of the COMEA House through Empty Bowls will help the shelter to give a "hand up" to people who find themselves without a home.

For more information concerning Empty Bowls, visit http://www.emptybowlscheyenne.org/.

For more information about COMEA House or about a donation, contact Executive Director Teresa Garrido at (307) 632-3174 or www.comea@bresnan.net.

"Picturing Faith" exhibit at UW

From a press release:

A series of photographs showing the place of religion in American society will be on display through March 23 in the University of Wyoming Classroom Building west entrance lounge in Laramie.

The UW Department of Religious Studies, along with others, sponsors "Picturing Faith: Religious America in Government Photography, 1935-1943." The exhibit is curated by Colleen McDannell, University of Utah Sterling M. McMurrin Professor of Religious Studies.

She will present a free public lecture Thursday, Feb. 12, at 5:10 p.m. in Room 133 of the Classroom Building. Refreshments will follow the lecture.

The Historical Division of the Farm Security Administration in 1935 began making a photographic survey of economic struggle and social dislocation in Depression-era America. The resulting "sociologists with cameras" entered the homes and churches of the poor and also the middle class.

They photographed people in prayer, domestic shrines, dinner graces, parishioners going into their churches, revival meetings, and even the gospel trucks of itinerant preachers. Picturing faith in the exhibit's series of photographs shows the place of religion in American society through the lens of some of America's most well-known photographers such as Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and Gordon Parks.

"Picturing Faith" also presents the works of equally talented but lesser-known photographers such as John Collier Jr., Marion Post Wolcott, Russell Lee, Jack Delano and Marjory Collins.

Also sponsoring the exhibit are the Wyoming Humanities Council, UW Foundation, the Office of Academic Affairs, the College of Arts and Sciences, the American Heritage Center, the Department of History, the African American Studies Program, the Master of Fine Arts Program, the American Studies Program, the Department of Art, the Chicano Studies Program, the Women's Studies Program and the Art Museum.

For more information, contact Quincy Newell, UW Department: Religious Studies assistant professor, at (307) 766-2144 or e-mail qdnewell@uwyo.edu.

Photo: Religion in America -- Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" is among images in a series of photographs depicting religion in American currently on display in the University of Wyoming Classroom Building west entrance lounge. (Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress)

Latest issue of Wyoming Winds online

Wyoming Winds, a monthly e-newsletter from the Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless in Cheyenne, contains lots of info about homelessness in Wyoming and the U.S. It also features art and poetry. Check out the latest issue at http://www.wch.vcn.com/wwfeb09.htm

WCH Director Virginia Sellner encourages wyomingarts readers to check out the org's new page on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=39676562300&ref=mf