Friday, April 9, 2004 | 4:24 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION
April 10 - 11, 2004
When: 6-8 p.m. Friday at the Moyer Student Union, building M, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Cost: Suggested donations of $3 or $5.
Information: See the Web site volunteercentersn.org or YSA.org / NYSD.
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, art student Michael Friedensreich sat behind a ceramics spindle Thursday afternoon, carefully moving his hands around a gray mound of clay.
He finished shaping it, removed it from the spindle and held it in the air.
"This will be a children's bowl," he said. "It's a little smaller than the others."
Friedensreich spent the week inside the ceramics room at UNLV, creating ceramic bowls for the debut of the first Las Vegas Souper Bowl, part of National Youth Service Day.
The event, hosted by the Volunteer Center of Southern Nevada, National Youth Service Day Coalition and the Las Vegas Youth Volunteers, will jump-start this year's National Youth Service Day weekend, a public awareness and education campaign Friday through April 18 that highlights the contributions that young people, ages 5-25, make to their communities throughout the year.
Residents from throughout the Las Vegas Valley are invited to attend the event at UNLV, where a $5 donation gets guests a bowl of homemade soup served in one of more than 100 handcrafted ceramic bowls created by local art students.
For a suggested $3 donation, guests will receive a bowl of soup, served inside a paper bowl.
"However, everyone will be served a bowl of soup, regardless of the donation amount," said Friedensreich, a Promise Fellow for the Volunteer Center of Southern Nevada and creator of the Las Vegas Souper Bowl.
"That ($3) is the suggested donation, but even if someone gives us 50 cents, we'll give them a bowl of soup," he said. "Turning someone away because they didn't have money wouldn't be in the spirit of the event."
The event's proceeds will go to support the Kid's Cafe program, an after-school food service for children operated by the Community Foodbank, according to Fran Smith, director of the Volunteer Center of Southern Nevada.
Friedensreich said he modeled the Las Vegas Souper Bowl after the Empty Bowls Project, a national project in which participants create ceramic bowls and serve simple meals of soup and bread for a $10 donation.
"I took that idea and put our own twist on it," he said. "I liked the idea of art students crafting the bowls and local culinary students crafting the soups. I wanted to do something with art, and this seemed to fit."
Friedensreich spent the week spinning bowls in the ceramics room at UNLV to use for the event. By Thursday afternoon he had crafted 70 bowls.
The art student said he was aiming to make 120 to 140 bowls.
Once the bowls are dry, UNLV art students will glaze them, giving them their own decorative touch, he said.
Certain bowls, created by art professors at UNLV, will be set aside to raise extra money, Smith said.
"We're going to add a little fun," she said. "Those bowls created by professors, the ones that are particularly impressive, will either be raffled off or auctioned at the event."
Friedensreich said he is trying to find local culinary students to create their own soups to "make the soup special."
Terrible Herbst has also donated different soups for the event.
"We called them up and asked them if they'd help and they said yes," he said. "They're providing different types of soups like vegetarian and nonvegetarian. There'll be something for everyone."
New York Bagels is donating bagels to go along with each bowl of soup, he said. "We'll also have matzah for the Jewish Sabbath," he said.
Supper entertainment and guest speakers are also planned for the event, he said. "We definitely have a DJ planned to spin records out there," he said.
Friedensreich said he will spend this week trying to get political figures to speak at the event.
"As part of National Youth Service Day, we'd like to have a political figure," he said. "We'd like to get Sen. (Harry) Reid or Rep. (Shelley) Berkley to come and say a few words."
Friedensreich is trying to recruit a celebrity to join the event as well.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada are also adding an artistic touch. Each site has created an art piece to be put together as a mural for the stage backdrop at the event, Friedensreich said.
Friedensreich said while this is the first such event, he plans on ensuring it won't be the last.
"I am hoping it will be a success and will grow every year," he said.
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