April 7, 2017 – We are extremely pleased to report to you the success of our 11th annual Empty Bowl Event that took place last Saturday, April 1!

Some of the highlights from the day:

About 550 people attended to choose lovely wooden and ceramic bowls and fill them with delicious soup (last year 420 people attended)

Event proceeds will cover 69 nights of basic shelter for 54 homeless men, women and children (8 more nights than last year!)

18 people joined the “Birthday Club” to adopt a night for a spouse, friend or dog!

The event costs were underwritten by generous local companies: Northern California Mortgage, Peters’ Drilling & Pump Service, SPD Markets, Port of Subs, Nevada County Association of Realtors, YubaNet, KVMR, KNCO, The Union, Telestream, API Marketing, Steve Munkelt and Volz Brothers.

The compassionate congregation at Peace Lutheran Church opened their doors to the Empty Bowl event, all to benefit our homeless community.

We could not have accomplished this feat without our faithful and generous volunteers. On behalf of our homeless neighbors, we THANK YOU all from the bottom of our hearts.

Without the participation of the local potters and artisans who lovingly crafted and donated over 600 bowls, this event would not exist.  Thank you to Dik Hotchkiss, Chic Lotz, Mindy Oberne, Yvon Dockter, Paul Steege, Refried Greens Pottery, Penny St. Clair, George Schroder, Rene Sprattling, Samuel Tubiolo, Steve Danner, the Gold Country Woodturners and many other artists!

All these bowls were washed with care before and after use, by:

Kathleen Kelly, Kathleen Hinman, Joyce Scott, Janie Kesselman, Peter Galbraith, Roger Oberne

The beautiful pieces of art that made up the Silent Auction were artistically arranged by:

Mindy and Roger Oberne and Chic Lotz

At the heart of this event is the soup! So many delicious soups to choose from was a big challenge. We would like to thank all of the soup providers who generously made at least 3 gallons of soup. What a labor of love.

Tommie Conlon, Beverly Werntz, Judy Olson, Maria Dicentio, Doug Lautzenhiser, Diane Petty, Drew German, Mitzi Phillips, David Pistone, BJ Forster, Susie Erntz, Joanna Weiss, Yvonne Turner, Margaret Currier, Linda Phelps, Caitie Dalzell, Betsy Abrams, Jeff Olson, Chris Brehm, Myrna from Peace Lutheran, and let’s not forget the provider of the delicious-looking Fish Soup (April Fool’s!) Who brought that, anyway?

Soup was also provided by several local restaurants:

California Organics, BriarPatch, Matteos Public, FudenJuice, Ike’s Quarter Cafe, Sopa Thai, Old Town Cafe, Three Forks Bakery & Brewing Co.

The heavy buckets of soup from the restaurants were lugged around joyfully by:

Craig and Laura Rohrsen

Freshly-baked bread was donated by:

SPD/Truckee Sourdough, Dupres Bakery, Three Forks

A huge shout-out THANK YOU to:

Cissy Murphy and her kitchen staff from Abundant Life Church who made the whole processing of soups seem easy.

Way behind the scene in the kitchen, cleaning up the empty soup buckets and endless crockpots, were:

Doug Lautzenhiser, Samuel Lautzenhiser, Jim McCririe, Blake Hinman, Tom Hale

Our stellar setup crew showed up early, were willing to do any task, and completed the job with time to spare. Many thanks to:

North Star Chapter of DeMolay, Nancy Zeno, Jessica Padilla, Jim and Karen Ostergard from Peace Lutheran and Taylor Wolfe

Things were kept in order and running smoothly on the dining floor by our hostesses:

Pat Forman and Flo Fahrenheit

Nice job ladies!

The drinks and desserts were kept flowing by:

Faith St. John, Valerie Stuart, Rose Shulman, Rob Shulman, Deborah Cohen

We were delighted to have the students of Grass Valley Charter assisting the hostesses by serving bread and bussing tables:

Kyle Barbe, Douglas Briney, Layla, Bella Votine, Baylee Cassel

Hospitality House Board Members and staff volunteers expertly greeted the guests, managed finances, sold tickets and hosted guest speakers.

Robert Wallace, Trish McPhee, Michael McDonald, Tom Morrissy, Mark Vieaux, John and Dee Murphy, Jodi Benson, Joanna Robinson

Our volunteers were greeted and assisted by Vee Proietti.

Soup Servers! What can we say about these folks? Here are some people that LOVE their job:

Carole and David Morris, Vanetta Hale, Jennifer Weir, Aubri Johnson, Sarah Shine, Mark Foster, Cathy Gilman

Maya Knowles kept the soup board updated and the line moving

New Moon Cafe and Twelve 28 Kitchen generously donated gift certificates that were raffled off swiftly by:

Lorra McCririe, Lori Jayne, Betty Kay Pilcher, Teresa Dietrich

Meeting our sweet tooth needs were the bakers of over 1000 finger food desserts:

Beverly Werntz, Judy Olson, Diane Petty, Doug Lautzenhiser, Dave Pistone, Jean Jacobs, Laura Ines, Kathleen Kelly, Aubri and Allison Johnson, Rose Dupen, Stan, Drew German, Tommie Conlon, George @ Smiley Guys, Deborah Cohen, Meghan Salter, Nancy Zeno, Sarah Shine, Rachael McGrath.

Thank you to Jodi Benson and our guest speakers who courageously shared their stories with the crowd, encouraging all, showing in real life how, by working together, we can make a difference and help one another.

The sound system and platform was knowledgeably setup and operated by:

Sage and Maya Knowles and Jim Heck

And the sight we were all grateful for at the end, was the arrival of the cleanup crew:

Mark Vance and his Music in the Mountains Young Composers group

These kids, and I wish I knew all their names, were Rock Stars! They knocked out this job more quickly than ever before.

Thanks to our talented creatives: Kathy Dotson created all the beautiful graphics for Empty Bowl 2017 (and her mother Linda Hempel strode the streets posting flyers), Susanna Wilson and Tom Durkin wrote articles and Charlotte Peterson and Josh McDonald photographed the event.

We know there are more of you out there, who pitched in, stepping up to fill a need, substituting for your friends who couldn’t make it, or just stopping by to see if we needed help. We apologize for not catching your name but your service is appreciated just the same!