Empty Bowls is an incredible creative opportunity bringing art, giving and eating together for a cause," said Rita Arancibia, who aided Clarksville in joining the nationwide grass roots movement to help the disadvantaged.
Empty Bowls of Clarksville hosted its first fundraising event in 2009, and since then community participation has more than doubled each year. The effort was a simple one: During the year artisans and people in the community came together to create bowls that will be given to people who attend the Empty Bowls fundraising event. Those bowls are "a symbol to remind us that there are empty bowls in neighborhoods throughout our community," Arancibia said.
This year more than 650 tickets were sold for the Tuesday, Feb. 22 event at Emmanuel Family Life Center. Many of the bowls that will be given to people attending the event were handmade by Ken Shipley, Austin Peay State University associate professor of art, his wife Melody Shipley, APSU ceramics students and community volunteers. Later the bowls were painted by people in the community, making each bowl a unique piece of art made by many hands.
"There are little more than 700 bowls, and I'd say we made most of them," Shipley said. "In October (during Bowl-a-Thon hosted by APSU Student Art League) they made about 400 with the help of members of the community and students."
Wednesday morning, Shipley and APSU ceramics students gathered in APSU's ceramics department to prepare the last 150 bowls for glazing and firing.
Click here to read the rest of the story from the Clarksville (TN) Leaf Chronicle.
This is a beautiful symbol of what we all should be doing to help others in need. It's no wonder that this great fundraising idea has caught on and taken off. It's encouraging to see that there are good people out there wanting to make a difference.
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