THE PERTH COURIER October 22, 2008 page 1 |
| Youth Centre Opens |
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Jackie Seaton says there is an obvious link between literacy and hunger – kids who go to school hungry have trouble learning.
It seemed only fitting that the well-known Perth-area potter join James Bartleman, former Ontario lieutenant-governor and now Perth resident, in opening the new location of YAK youth centre.
Bartleman has spent much of his adult life raising money and awareness to stock school libraries in Canada’s north.
This year, some of the money from Seaton’s Empty Bowls program went to help fund aboriginal summer reading camps tied to Bartleman.
During the official opening of the new youth centre, which has moved to the south end of the Old Perth Shoe Factory at 1 Sherbrooke St,. Bartleman told a packed room that he has long been a supporter of youth causes. He described his humble childhood and First Nations background, growing up in a working-class family, and told how he managed to avoid criminal activities other neighbourhood young people became involved in in his village of about 500 near Georgian Bay.
Bartleman said he never forgot a boy from his neighbourhood in Port Carling, Ont., who followed the wrong path and eventually killed himself in Kingston Penitentiary. He credits books and his ability to read with preventing him from following this same path.
“Learning to read meant I had options,” he explained. Bartleman did well in school, attended university, entered the foreign service and served on six continents before becoming Ontario’s 27th lieutenant-governor and the first native person in the province to hold a vice-regal position.
“I never forgot those early years in Port Carling … (childhood) is the most important time of your life.
“That’s why this centre is so important.”
In the north, he said, young people have been killing themselves for 25 years.
“No one cared about native kids,” he said, adding that there were no books in libraries. “They had no hope,” he said, referring to the escape he found in books when he was young.
Bartleman’s efforts have led to between $20 and $30 million worth of used books being collected for northern libraries. “It’s nice to go up there and see kids reading.”
He has also developed a book club, which boasts 5,000 students from kindergarten to Grade 8 who receive new books, and is responsible for starting 39 camps for children in remote communities of Ontario.
Seaton told of how he had visited a cottage in the Muskoka area, near Bartleman’s childhood home. The cottage book shelves were stocked with first-edition books, he said, including a memoir by Bartleman. “This was my first introduction (to Bartleman’s story) |
READING CAMP: Jackie Seaton announced on Monday that $1,800 of the money raised in this year’s Empty Bowls program will go to the snack program at two literacy camps, including this one, the Onigaming First Nation camp. Empty Bowls distributed an additional $11,000 to food programs in Perth this year.
After meeting the former lieutenant-governor last spring, Seaton said his words stuck with him: “Civil society has to act on its own.”
“That’s what Empty Bowls is all about,” he said, talking of his program which raises at least $10,000 each year for the food bank, YAK and school food programs.
Frontier College, which manages the literacy summer program for children, seemed like a perfect fit, he said, for extra money that was raised this year, totalling more than $12, 000.
Giving a further $1,800 to a program outside the community also made sense, he said, because many Empty Bowls donors come from outside the community.
Seaton says it seems natural that they should mirror the generosity of those from outside the Perth area who donate to Empty Bowls by passing along a portion of their support “to children of this province who are all too often forgotten.”
The money will fund snack programs at two Ontario literacy camps: Wabaseemong First Nation and Onigaming First Nation. More information about the two programs is available online at www.frontiercollege.ca and www.emptybowls.ca |
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By LIANNE LAHAIE
Staff Writer |
Many hands make light work. That certainly proves true for well-known local potter Jackie Seaton, who is gearing up for the seventh year of his hugely successful Empty Bowls project.
Seaton recently advised the EMC that he has opened his studio to three students from Ceramic programs in Oakville and Montreal who traveled to Perth to donate their winter holiday time to help lay the groundwork for the project, which officially kicks off at the Festival of the Maples in Perth every April.
Seaton noted that Ann-Marie Turcotte, a graduating student from Montreal’s Centre de Bonsecours, Deborah Freeman, a second year student at Sheridan College and Aislinn Caron, also in her second year at Sheridan College, spent several days helping Seaton create bowls for the project.
The endeavour is a win-win situation for both Seaton and the students – Seaton gets some much needed assistance preparing for the project, while students get to spend time working in a studio alongside a professional potter.
The concept of the project is simple – Seaton makes 5 hundred beautiful stoneware bowls and donates them to the project.
During the annual Festival of the Maples, people buy the bowls from a booth set up outside Riverguild Fine Crafts, |
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Local potter and Empty bowls project founder Jackie Seaton (centre) recently welcomed three students from Sheridan College and Centre de Céramique Bonsecours in Montreal to help make bowls for this year’s Empty Bowls project. Here, Seaton is joined by students Ann-Marie Turcotte (lect) and Deborah Freeman. |
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which are then filled with delicious soup prepared graciously by a number of local restaurants.
The bowls serve as a constant reminder that there are always empty bowls in the world and that people right here in our community are going without food.
The project raises awareness about hunger in the world around us and, more importantly, those who are going hungry
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in our own Communities.
The project has been going strong for seven years and raises in excess of $10,000 a year. The proceeds are donated to the Perth and District Food Bank, Lanark County Food for Thought and the Youth Action Kommittee (YAK).
Seaton told the EMC last year that he continues to be “blown away” by the amazing amount of support the community lends year after year.
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| Bowls ~ continued pg 2 |
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“It’s just phenomenal and it’s a true testament to how wonderful the people in this community are” he commented. “Everyone works together to make it happen and it looks like all of our expenses (minus the bowls which are donated by Seaton himself) are being covered by the private sector. There are no administration costs to cover, which means 100 per cent of every dollar raised goes right back into the community.”
While the bowls can be found at Riverguild Fine Crafts in downtown Perth year-round, it’s the special events held in April – the Festival of the Maples and an event put on mid-month by Foodsmiths – that attract the most attention to the project.
Seaton noted the theme at the Foodsmiths event this year will be “Slow Food”, with emphasis being placed on quality produce grown locally.
Foodsmiths will sponsor the event, which will include participation from the local Slow Food organization.
Much later in the year, during the Thanksgiving long weekend, local potters Susie Osler, Rita Redner, and Glen Gangnier will join the project with their own unique bowls for an additional fundraising event during the annual Perth Autumn Studio Tour.
“Besides raising funds, I hope these bowls will raise awareness about hunger and child poverty in our community,” Seaton commented. “It does exist. It shouldn’t. Each bowl is a reminder that food is not just a commodity, but a basic right.
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There is no doubt that Empty Bowls has had an enormous impact on the groups it raises funds for. According to Darinka Morelli, executive director for YAK, the youth centre’s dinner and food support for homeless youth programs wouldn’t be possible without the financial support of Empty Bowls.
“Jackie has single-handedly provided funding for both programs,” Morelli stated. “Without that funding, we wouldn’t be able to run those programs.”
Morelli explained that the dinner program involves having a fully stocked open kitchen in the youth centre. Youth can come in to the centre and make themselves a meal and bring food home with them if they wish.
Once a week, the centre hosts a dinner night, during which youth get a chance to make an entire meal from scratch and then sit down and eat it together. They learn how to prepare meals easily and economically while learning about nutrition.
The centre also provides homeless support to youth. Once youth find a place to stay, whether it be permanent or temporary, they can come to the centre, grab a bag of food and take it with them to their new home.
Sharon Bjergso, with Lanark County Food for Thought, said Empty Bowls stays true to the philosophy that it takes a village to raise a child.
She said 100 per cent of the proceeds donated from Empty Bowls to Food for Thought are used to purchase healthy food
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Student Aislinn Caron works her magic on this bowl, which will be sold during this year’s Empty Bowls project, which is organized by well - known local potter Jackie Seaton |
for school breakfast, lunch and snack programs.
Nancy Wildgoose, board member with the Perth and District Food Bank, said Empty Bowls is one ot the largest donors to the food bank. She said it helps that the donation is consistent, which means the food bank can rely on the money and make plans for what to do with it.
In 2005, the food bank served 4,706 people, 1,979 of which were children. Usage of the food bank has increased by nearly 85 per cent since 2001, thus proving the need for its services in the Perth and surrounding communities is great.
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