Potters Guild members Mishah Hannon, Kristina Finsterwalder, Alexis Lanham, Lindsay Bello, Oanh Trinh, Mai Trinh John Forster and Nick Shepster work on bowls that will be used for next year’s Empty Bowls event.

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April may be volunteer month, but for Potters Guild members at Barron Collier High School, volunteerism is a yearlong effort. Following a successful January fundraiser, which netted thousands of dollars for the Harry Chapin Food Bank, the talented group of BCHS students meets after school every Wednesday to work their wheels, form, paint, glaze and fire new bowls for their next event.

“We live for this,” says Oanh Trinh, as she molds the clay shape of a bowl that will be filled with donated soup from a local restaurant and traded for a $10 donation at Cambier Park. “The people are so happy they have the bowls.”

The brainchild of BCHS art teacher Donna Torrance, the annual Empty Bowls event is spilling over with more success each year.

“John Hartford was the founder of this national event back in 1990,” she explains. “We sold 700 tickets to the past event at Cambier Park and 969 bowls were sold.”

Sister schools that help create the bowls include Lely, Gulf Coast and Naples high schools as well as the BCHS Adult Education Program and the Art League of Marco Island.

“It’s truly a community project, because one person can’t claim the bowl,” explains Torrance. “Students come in after school; one person is painting, one person is glazing, and there is a signature at the bottom, but everyone made the bowl.”

She says parting with the bowls can also be challenging for the students.“We’ve all made bowls and the sacrifice is that they have to part with something they really love,” Torrance notes.

For BCHS senior Kristina Finsterwalder, president of the Potters Guild, the experience provides participants the chance to witness the powerful reaction from the community.

“There was a lady, who was like 70 years old, and she called Mrs. Torrance and said that no one ever makes anything handmade for her,” Finsterwalder recalled. “On the bottom of each bowl we write a note. She said she would treasure this forever. The thank- you notes from people who have photocopied the bottoms of the bowls are great.”

Each bowl has a unique note on it, from short poems to facts about the Harry Chapin Food Bank.

Although Finsterwalder plans to attend Western Carolina University next year, she hopes to fly back to Naples to take part in the third annual Empty Bowl event at Cambier Park next January.

“I’m going to make some bowls and send them down to Mrs. Torrance,” she says.

For more information on the Potter’s Guild or to donate a hand-crafted bowl, call Torrance at 377-1387 or go online to: http://www.collierschools.com/bch/Activities/Clubs/pottersG/UPCOMINGEVENTS.htm.