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Hundreds attend Empty Bowls event for hunger awareness

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Attendees at Sunday’s Empty Bowls event choose from the colorful hand-painted bowls at Alpena Senior Citizens Center. The sold-out event attracted about 230 people.

ALPENA — The third annual Empty Bowls event attracted roughly 230 people and raised approximately $1,800, to be divided among several local agencies that fight hunger in our community.

Organizers were elated with the success of the event, held Sunday at Alpena Senior Citizens Center.

“I’ve got goosebumps all over,” said BJ Sander, program manager at the senior center. “This is the first time we’ve collaborated with Cobbygoose, and we’ve had such an amazing turnout … very exciting.”

It was cosponsored by the senior center and Cobbygoose, which provided the bowl-painting sessions over the past several months. Members of the community paid $10 each to paint the bowls in a wide variety of colors and designs, then Cobbygoose glazed and fired them in a kiln to prepare them for the event.

“We’re hoping to have double the bowls for next year,” said Ashley Borchard, owner of Cobbygoose, located in the Alpena Mall. “We’re hoping to have at least 300 next year. So, we’re going to actually start painting for 2021 this April.”

She said 57 bowls from last year’s event were used, and 130 were painted for this year’s event, totaling 187 bowls.

The first 187 tickets sold out last week, at $5 apiece, which guaranteed each ticketholder their choice of a bowl to take home. Those who attended the event without a ticket were able to partake of the many different homemade soups, dinner rolls, drinks and desserts, but they were not able to take home a handpainted bowl. The bowls remind us of those in our community who are sitting at a table with an empty bowl in front of them.

Senior Center Director Annie Hepburn was floored with the turnout.

“It’s awesome,” she said. “This is the first time we’ve ever done it, so we didn’t know what to expect … Knowing that the room is full and people are looking for tables is just awesome. And to know that we’re not just helping the seniors, but we’re helping all age groups that are dealing with hunger. Obviously the more funds we raise, the more we can give those agencies.”

She added that the goal for next year is to have at least 300 bowls painted and ready to go.

“We appreciate all the donations of the soup,” Hepburn added. “We donated some from the senior center, but we couldn’t have had all these different selections if we didn’t ask for help from the local restaurants.”

Soup was donated by the Hungry Hippie, CW’s, Connie’s Cafe, Nick’s Diner and Take 5 Deli. The senior center bakery made all the dinner rolls, and desserts were provided by the senior center as well.

“We figured we had about 50 gallons of soup,” Hepburn said of the total.

Borchard plans to have a bowl-painting event every few months at Cobbygoose in preparation for an even more successful 2021 Empty Bowls event. Cobbygoose has been a cosponsor of the event since its inception three years ago.

“About every two months, we’re going to try to do an Empty Bowls event,” Borchard said. “I’m going to try to do some instruction, so we’ll do theme-styled bowls, but then it’s going to be an open paint as well.”

She said the public participating in painting bowls determines how successful the event will be.

“I clear glaze everything, and then it goes into the kiln, and that’s usually about a 24-hour process,” Borchard added.

She was excited to see so many people participating on Sunday.

“I’m on the moon right now,” Borchard said.

Darby Hinkley is Lifestyles editor. She can be reached at 989-358-5691 or dhinkley@thealpenanews.com.

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