This year's Empty Bowls Festival held on Canada Day (July 1) was an incredible success.

The 8th annual event did extremely well, shares Nicole Snider, owner of Saffron Collective Studios, raising an impressive 3,191 dollars for the Cochrane Activettes. "I think it went great. It was a great location, good to be by the pancake breakfast, and we saw so much happiness from everybody that we were back."

Moving the festival from its usual spot in front of Addie's Creative Fabrics to beside Royal Lepage Allstars proved to be a good fit for the event, shares Snider, who returned to Saffron with only 34 of the approximately 250 pieces they started off with. "This is probably a record low for pieces coming back. Anything Canadiana went right away, especially, any of the ones we featured in pictures that people had seen. They were either sold that day, or the day before because some people came in and said they were unable to come the day of."

Ann Beatty with the Cochrane Activettes, says the money collected from Empty Bowls will help them fill the gaps for much-needed items. "It will help purchase any of the food that we don't get through donations, mainly for our hampers. I can't think of anything off the top of my head that we need at this point in time, but we always seem to have times where we end up being short of things and we end up going to purchase them."

The demand for help continues to grow, shares Beatty, so events like Empty Bowls are gratefully appreciated by the non-profit organization. "With the town growing, there are always people in need that you don't know about. Whether they are struggling to make it because housing costs are high or whether they have to travel to Calgary for a job and incur that cost, sometimes they fall short and need help getting food for their family."

Beatty shares this year's theme was a great hit, and anything with a maple leaf was appreciated.

Snider says the 'people have spoken' when it comes to 2020's theme, and community members can once again expect to see artistically created bowls and mugs featuring all things Canadiana.

If you have thought about taking up pottery, Saffron Collective Studios welcomes you. "You can just call. You can come and take classes here and learn how to become a potter. A lot of people practice with the Empty Bowls because it is reclaimed clay that we use generally. A lot of people practice different techniques on these pieces because they can and they have the opportunity to."

While the bowls/mugs cost $20, some people just made a donation without actually selecting a piece of pottery.

If you would like to more about the programs/classes Saffron Collective Studios offers, go HERE.

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