Empty Bowls Event

The final count on Empty Bowls for 2023 was 262 bowls. 

My wife and I were able to attend the Empty Bowls event in Milwaukee last Sunday. I saw a few other club members there as well. I wanted to let you know how things worked out for us.

One concern I always have when I go to the city is parking. We were able to find parking within a block and because it was a Sunday, we parked for free. Admittedly, we arrived after the rush was over and got there about 1:30, but there was still a lot going on.

After we neared the entrance to the building there were a lot of volunteers to help us find our way. We wanted to purchase bowls, so we went into the bowl selection area. At that time there were a lot of bowls to choose from and there were still many wooden bowls on display. It was heartwarming to see how many of the “shoppers” were selecting wooden bowls as they moved among the tables. My wife and I each selected a ceramic bowl, because, well, we can make a wooden bowl any time we want one. There were some $15 bowls (made by students) for purchase as well as the $30 artisan bowls.

After we selected our bowls we went upstairs to the main event area. With each bowl you get two tickets and more tickets can be purchased for $2 each. Tickets are good for a variety of items. One ticket was good for a ~2 fl. oz sample of soup. There were drinks (and perhaps bread) that could be purchased as well. There were a variety of soup stations around the perimeter of the room and we sampled a number of them. They were all good! Some were outstanding! (Some were sold out – they must have been better than outstanding). Even with our late arrival time there was plenty of soup to be sampled.

There was a silent auction with a number of attractive items in it.

There was live music with a pretty good band. We had an enjoyable time and will very likely go back again.

I think get into the main event without purchasing a bowl. I would tell any volunteer who asked that you had donated a bowl. You would still have to pay for the tickets to purchase the soup samples and other items so they wouldn’t be out anything but it would be a substantial savings if you don’t feel you can afford a $30 bowl.