AROUND TOWN: Tri-Lakes Empty Bowls Dinner

Potters Anne Shimek and Richard and Linda Pankratz had an inspiration: use their artistic talents to help feed the hungry in the Tri-Lakes area.

That was 19 years ago after Linda had seen an article about a ceramic artist’s project in Minnesota.

The trio planned an Empty Bowls Dinner on World Hunger Day. More than 200 handmade bowls were created as take-home mementoes.  Community members were invited to bring homemade pies and crockpots of homemade soup to the basement meeting room of a local church. The pies and 42 filled crockpots arrived. Forty one crockpots were plugged in; number 42 blew out all the lights.

That first dinner raised $2,000-3,000 for the area’s food bank.

On Oct. 12, a crowd of 730 converged on Lewis-Palmer High School for the 2011 Empty Bowls Dinner.  Early birds had lined up almost an hour before the doors opened. Awaiting them was their choice of almost 1,000 bowls made by local artisans, Pikes Peak Community College and Lewis-Palmer High School art students and artistic supporters. (BTW, this writer is enjoying her colorful flower bowl by Ellen of LPHS.)

For several years the event sponsorship has been handled by Monument Hill Kiwanis Club and members’ bright blue vests dotted all the different areas of the high school. An excellent silent auction has been added. Businesses and local restaurants have stepped up to provide the meal from the high school’s cafeteria kitchen, where the fuses aren’t prone to blowing out. Bakers at area churches whip up the pies.

Another change, the money raised goes to Tri-Lakes Cares, the agency that helps those in need in the Tri-Lakes area. On Saturdaythe Kiwanis Club gave the nonprofit a check for $18,194, a much-needed boost at a time of increasing need, the economic climate and proposed government spending cuts, said TLC Executive Director Haley Chapin.

For the Kiwanis Club’s Barbara Dienes, “the Empty Bowls event demonstrates how friends, neighbors, residents and area businesses can come together to help one another. It really shows a slice of small-town Americana at its best.”

Co-founder Shimek said, “We fill your bowls so you can fill someone else’s.”

PHOTOS: http://tinyurl.com/42jbmod