Mayor, Deputy Mayor Attend Moorestown FEP Empty Bowl Dinner

MOORESTOWN, NJ - Early In March, the Moorestown Friends Enrichment Program (FEP) for financially disadvantaged Moorestown children held its annual Empty Bowl Dinner. The event was successful as a fundraiser and as an opportunity for people from the community at large to buy ceramic bowls made by children and young-at-heart-adults. They were also able to share a soup and bread dinner with FEP children and their families.

Moorestown Mayor Lisa Petriello and Deputy Mayor Nicole Gillespie were among the attendees. For the children who benefit from the program and for their families, the presence of community leaders was particularly meaningful, according to the FEP.

On the heels of that event, the FEP is looking ahead to its annual Music and Dance Medley fundraiser set for Sunday, April 28, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., in the Dining Hall/Commons of Moorestown Friends School, 110 East Main Street.

The cast of performers, which has yet to be completed, includes FEP children who take music lessons at Perkins Center for the Arts and a sixth-grader who plays the clarinet on the Upper Elementary School Band.

Also included are two homespun groups of FEP performers: the FEP Girls Gymnastics Team and the Boys Dancing Team, which also includes a tomboy, the FEP said. The choreographers and leaders of these two teams are sixth-graders.

“They are the same leaders who successfully led their teams last year,” the FEP said. “These naturally talented young people in gymnastics and dance are capable of handling such responsibilities because of their participation in the FEP program of Sunday afternoon activities, a program that endeavors to empower children by helping them develop their talents, their self-confidence, and their leadership skills.”

Created in 1997, the FEP began hosting musical fundraisers in 1998, years before it held its first music and dance medley. The first performer was an adult, a professional pianist. A few years later, the performers were all children who took music lessons.

After that came the FEP’s first music and dance medleys with the addition of praise-dancing to the program. Over time, the events have become more and more inclusive. This year, for the first time, three performers are young talented people who work at the Moorestown Starbucks on Main Street.

“Vanelle Alecco, Morgan Kennedy, and Holland Rawlings sing happily as they work behind the counter,” the FEP said. “They have voices that deserve to be heard beyond the walls of their workplace.”

The list of performers is growing. Refreshments will follow the performances. The event is open to the public free of charge. Freewill donations will go into the FEP scholarships fund and will be used in their entirety to provide scholarships for qualifying Moorestown children to attend summer camp, enroll in art classes or sports clinics, take music lessons at no cost to their parents, or participate in other age-appropriate, life-enhancing activities at no cost to their parents. For more information, call Monique Begg at 856-235-3963.