Indiana Wesleyan will host this year’s Empty Bowl Project fundraiser in partnership with local recovery residence Hope House, College Wesleyan Church and Pioneer Foods.
The event will take place on Feb 16 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in IWU’s Century Dining Room located in the Barnes Student Center.
This is the third year the event will be held in Marion, but the first year it will be held on IWU’s campus.
“In the past it’s always been held here at College Church,” said Beau Hamner, College Wesleyan Church’s outreach pastor. Hamner said the decision to move the event was made by IWU ceramics professor John Reishus in order to get more students involved.
The Empty Bowl Project raises money for Hope House by selling locally made ceramic bowls and soup provided by Pioneer Foods. Reishus and his students have made several of bowls on sale at the event
“The Ceramics Two class is wheel throwing,” said Reishus. “They have to throw 30 bowls for the next week, but they have to donate 20 of them.”
The Empty Bowl Project is not original to Hope House or College Wesleyan Church but is based on similar events held across the country.
“I don’t know where it started,” said Hamner. “I took part of it with an organization I was with in Austin, and then John and I helped bring it to Marion a few years ago.”
Hamner said College Wesleyan Church was already partnered with Hope House before bringing The Empty Bowl Project to Marion.
“We started to kind of talk about how people are in our residence, when they come into Hope House are much like the raw piece of clay that is turned into a bowl,” said Tia Brewer, Executive Director of Hope House. “How it’s taken by God into His hands and the outside influences of, you know, the surroundings of people and what we pour into them start to mold and shape them into a unique vessel for God’s love for us.”
Brewer will be speaking at the event along with several current and former Hope House residents.
All proceeds from The Empty Bowl Project will be donated to Hope House to cover maintenance costs for the recovery residence’s four houses and off-set the move-in fee for residents who cannot afford it.
