Today's Empty Bowls event at McDonough helps individuals, community'

YOUNGSTOWN

Logan Petersen likes to use an analogy comparing a cracked, uneven sidewalk on which it’s easy to stumble and fall with a smooth, even surface to dramatize that people can navigate through their lives with more ease or difficulty, depending on whether they make positive or negative choices.

“It gave me the understanding of what I needed in my life,” said Petersen, referring to his nearly five-month stay at the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley. “I have a good relationship with God, which carries into my relationship with my future wife.”

Petersen added he’s been trying to walk “on a flat surface,” meaning he’s developing a firmer grasp on making good decisions, thanks largely to being in the Rescue Mission’s Discipleship Academy.

Petersen also feels that one such uplifting decision he has made was volunteering as part of Saturday’s first Empty Bowls YSU event at the John J. McDonough Museum of Art, 525 Wick Ave., on the North Side.

People paid $15 per ticket online ($20 at the door) to attend the five-hour fundraiser, which brought together local artists and businesses to raise money on behalf of the mission and to help feed those in the Mahoning Valley who are less fortunate.

The artists, many of whom are in Youngstown State University’s ceramics program, created close to 500 handmade ceramic bowls, noted Missy McCormick, a YSU assistant art professor. At the event, attendees received a meal of donated soup and bread, along with a beverage, then took home the brightly colored bowls of numerous sizes and shapes, all in exchange for their donations.

The gathering, which was part of an international project to combat hunger, also was a collaborative effort between the artists, YSU and its alumni program, Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pa., and some area high school students, McCormick explained.

Read more about the event in Sunday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.