Shining Stars: Special Event Award
Waterloo Potter’s Workshop
It sounds like a lot of work for 25 potters to make 600 bowls — and it is. But for the members of the Waterloo Potters’ Workshop, it’s a labour of love.
Every year since 1999, the Waterloo Potters’ Workshop — a group of local potters that has been in existence for 45 years — has been making bowls for their Empty Bowls event, which aims to combat hunger and poverty in the region. The Empty Bowls event is hosted by the Clay and Glass Gallery and gives participants a chance to buy a handmade bowl and sample some gourmet soup donated by 10 local restaurants. All the proceeds from the event go to the Food Bank of Waterloo Region.
“[The idea for the empty bowls event] originated in 1991 in Michigan,” explained Laurie Cowell, a member of the Waterloo Potters’ Workshop. “There was a high school teacher who was looking for a project for his students that would get them involved in the community and he came up with the idea of having this “empty bowls” event. “One of our members heard about it and she thought ‘oh, we could do it’ and we took it on. It’s been really well received.”
Three years ago, the Potters’ Workshop started a partnership with the Robert Langen Art Gallery at Wilfrid Laurier University to run a separate Empty Bowls event. The potters provide WLU with 100 bowls, which are filled with soup provided by WLU food services, and the money goes to the Food Bank.
In its first year, the event raised just over $2,300 for the Food Bank, but according to Cowell, it now regularly brings in over $25,000, including the money raised by the event at Laurier. Cowell added that since 1999, the Empty Bowls event has raised $194,555 total. “We always think of the empty bowls as a very positive experience,” said Cowell. “We have some people that come every year. We had one person that said she’d been coming every year for 15 years, I don’t know where she’s putting all these bowls.”
