Korn donates Soup Bowls
for Food Bank Loon Festival Benefit

May 18, 2000
Seeley Swan Pathfinder
Seeley Lake, Montana

by Patricia Swan Smith
For the Pathfinder

The 8th Annual Loon & Fish Festival will have an extra special twist this year with 100 pottery soup bowls donated by Bob Korn, owner of KornUtopia Pottery in Condon. The bowls were made by Korn and will be sold as a part of the "Soup Bowl Benefit", with all the proceeds going to the Seeley Swan Community Food Bank.

Not only can you purchase one of these wonderful bowls filled with great soup, you may also watch Korn while he throws another 100 bowls that he'll donate to the Swan Valley Senior Services Meals-On-Wheels program.

Korn said that the idea is a "national" thing, and it was started years ago by a pottery guild.

"They called it the `Empty Bowls Project', and it was to raise money for food in one respect or another, either donating it to a food bank or purchasing food for the homeless--a project like that."

Korn decided that it would be a nice project for the Seeley Swan valley. The first 100 bowls will be available this weekend, and the second batch will be sold in the Swan at a later date.

The soup bowls, filled with home-made soup and served with a roll, can be purchased for $12 between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. at the Community Hall on Saturday, May 27th.

And while Korn gets the credit for throwing the bowls, he said he doesn't get the credit for decorating them. The bowls were decorated by approximately 15 of the Alpine Artisan members over two different weekends this spring.

"Some of them are artists, some of them weren't," Korn said. "They're really one of a kind."

The soup has been donated by local restaurants according to Food Bank Board Member Mary Ann Morin.

"We really appreciate all of this," she said. "The bowls are beautiful, and we're sure the soup will be great. We hope everyone will stop by and help support the food bank."

Besides helping the food bank, the weekend holds a lot of great entertainment such as chair caning, pastel painting, pinch pots, rock painting, relief sculpture and fly casting demonstrations, raffles, bird walks, loon viewing, children's art projects and an abundance of local art made by Alpine Artisans members.

The fun starts at 8 a.m. Saturday morning, and wraps up at 4 p.m. on Sunday.