Every year, the Collins community looks forward to the annual soup bowl benefit, where students prepare bowls in the ceramics studio to be sold with soup to raise money for the RISE! at Middle Way House. Despite the necessary precautions for the pandemic, the community still made this important event possible, raising over $200!
The Soup Bowl Benefit would not be possible without the support of the Collins Arts Council and the ceramics coordinators, Aralia Pawlick and Sydney Crider. In the months leading up to the event, they spent countless hours shaping, firing, and glazing bowls. Additionally, they held weekly tutorial events (with required sign-ups) so that every Collinsite had the chance to learn to make a bowl for a great cause.
Due to pandemic precautions, a new solution was necessary to distribute soup to Collinsites. After many Philanthropy Council meetings, a safe alternative was found so that every Collinsite who would like a bowl also had available soup. The amazing council member Levi Gettleman spent tireless hours creating multiple jar soup recipes for distribution. The final three recipes that made the cut were miso noodle, baked potato, and chicken noodle soup. Collinsites just needed to add boiling water and had a hot and fresh bowl of soup in the safety of their rooms.
Finally, we knew that it would not be possible to have crowds of committed Collinsites congregating all at once to be the first to their favorite bowls. As a result, we photographed all of the bowls and created an online sign-up system where over half of the bowls were spoken for within the first half-hour after the link was sent out. We were even able to have a few bowls for silent auction.
60 jars of soup, 40 bowls, and $245 dollars later, another Soup Bowl Benefit is in the books as a huge success!
The College of Arts