Sunday, April 15th from 11:30 A.M.-3:30 P.M. Family Promise of San Gabriel Valley will hold its first annual Empty Bowls Luncheon at the Sierra Madre Methodist Church, 695 Sierra Madre Blvd. in Sierra Madre (corner of Sierra Madre and Michillinda Blvds. with parking from Michillinda). For $25 in advance ($30 at the door) attendees will receive a handcrafted ceramic bowl, soup, cracker and cookies. Registration is available online at http://ow.ly/9BVNB or through participating churches.   All proceeds from the event will go to Family Promise, a nonprofit organization that shelters homeless families and helps them find employment and housing.

In addition to entertainment at the event there will be a drawing for a door prize and drawings for gift baskets and pottery. Local artisans, including world-renowned ceramist

and instructor at Ramona Convent Secondary School Robert Maxwell, will offer their jewelry and pottery for sale at the event. They have agreed to share a percentage of the proceeds with Family Promise. For more information on the event see http://web.fpsgv.org/empty-bowls-2012-4.

Maxwell is very pleased to participate along with his students in this event to benefit the homeless. He said, “That all the family at Ramona Convent Secondary School are dedicated to community service. The advanced students who worked on the pottery wheels really liked the idea of donating one of their bowls to this noble cause.” In addition to the 20 bowls the students have made, Maxwell has donated 50 bowls that he made to the event so that those who get to the luncheon early can select his bowls for their soup. He is also having two tables of his museum-quality items, which will be for sale from bowls to lamps to strange animals. Maxwell says that “With my ridiculous sense of humor, I think of this as the Souper Bowl Sunday. It is expected that over 400 hundred people will attend and help raise money for the homeless. When they empty the bowl, their empty bowl will be so symbolic of what hungry people face every day.” He also goes on to say, “Other than donating yearly my ceramics to the October Silent Auction for a student scholarship fundraiser at Ramona [Convent Secondary School], this is the first time I have had the opportunity to help on a community wide fundraiser. It is really ‘fund’ for me to participate. I feel blessed!”

The Family Promise Program started originally in 1988 in Summit, New Jersey and is presently in 41 States with 174 affiliates. More than 150,000 volunteers in 5,500 congregations help more than 50,000 homeless family members annually with 60 percent of them being children. More than 80 percent of those who enter the program find long-term housing in less than two months. Monterey Park churches participating in the Family Promise of San Gabriel Valley program are St. Stephen Martyr Catholic Church, Trinity Church of the Nazarene, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and Ministerios Nuevo Amanecer.