MMS Program Raises Money for Children Near and Far

Just prior to the Evening of Excellence tonight, Millburn Middle School students will help make the world a better place for children with the annual Empty Bowls fundraiser.

SOAR and PEACE Peer Leader GroupsPeer leaders and others created ceramic bowls with the help of senior citizens and then they had them glazed. Tonight they will serve a soup-and-bread dinner in them with intention to use the bowl as a reminder there are always empty bowls around the world.

For $15 participants will receive a unique handmade clay bowl served with a warm meal inside, along with information and an evening of fun. Proceeds will be used to make donations to the Down the Block Charity, the Community Foodbank of New Jersey and Stop Hunger Now Inc.

In addition to the bowls project, students will sell off chairs they turned into works of art.

The Chair Project was born when teacher Claudia Sohr delivered used bicycles to the Bike Exchange in Newark back in October. She went down to the basement to help store the bikes.

"The chairs were piled in a corner and I inquired about their future -- the bike store used to be an old Newark restaurant and the chairs were left there when the store changed hands," Mrs. Sohr said. "I asked the director of the Bike Exchange Organization if I could take them for the purpose of 'upcycling' them and she agreed. The used chairs meant to be put out on the global garbage heap have been given a new life by the Soar Harmony Peer Leaders."

The chairs will be sold during tonight's Evening of Excellence for $25 each. Proceeds will be donated back to the Newark Bike Exchange which in turn gives it's profits to the Girls & Boys Clubs of Newark. Half of the funds will be donated to UNICEF.

As part of the Evening of Excellence parents can tour their children's classrooms, see exhibits of student science and art, hear their music and preview the spring musical, "13."

The Empty Bowls event will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the on Old Short Hills Road. The Evening of Excellence will take place between 7 and 8:30 p.m..