The City Wire Persons of the Month: Van Buren High School art class
by February 11, 2010 9:48 pm 83 views
Editor’s note: The City Wire highlights each month a person (or persons, in this case) in the Fort Smith region. Special recognitions, accomplishments, philanthropic support and input from The City Wire readers are considered when selecting a person to profile.
story and photos by Ruby Dean
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Did you know that one out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every night? America is thought of as the wealthiest and most bountiful nation in the world. We, as Americans, think that hunger is only in the developing countries. When we think of starvation, it is outright starvation, but in the U.S. it is the face of a child who is malnourished because possibly the parents do not earn enough to buy healthy food and the child has to sometimes skip meals.
The Van Buren High School Art Club hopes to help some of these children who are not as fortunate as others. They handcrafted more than 300 bowls for their Empty Bowls Event on Feb. 11. The club sold 275 tickets by the time the event started (tickets were to be purchased before the event), but tickets were for sale at the door.
For just $15, a person could walk out with a piece of art, a full stomach, and all for a good cause. The money raised for the event will be given to the Community Services Clearinghouse for its Meals for Kids Backpack Program, which supplies certain area students in Western Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma with food for the weekend on every Friday of the school year.
On each table, there were notes that were written by students who participate in the Backpack program. Each and every one of the notes were from area public school students who were very thankful for the program. They were very appreciative and said it made their weekend much better knowing that they would have food.
It was the art students idea to do the Empty Bowl Event. Clearinghouse Director Rick Foti met with the students to explain the program. Since that time, the high school students worked with a committee of community leaders to make the project a success including members of Leadership Crawford County and members of the Van Buren Chamber of Commerce.
The Community Services Clearinghouse has an office in Fort Smith, but they don’t just serve the Fort Smith area, according to Sue Robison, community relations director at Clearinghouse. They serve schools in Western Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma, and reach 2,458 students in a seven-county area. Of those, only 836 who receive food from the backpack program live in Fort Smith, 254 are in Van Buren, and 800 of the students are in Oklahoma.
What about the art students? They are being educated not only about pottery, but also what it means to those who don’t have. Shelbie Alves just wants to make the community a better place. She is a member of the art club and donated her time washing the bowls after patrons had finished eating so they would have a clean piece of art to take home.
