Soup for the Shelter

La Grande potter Bob Jensen, who has been involved with the Soup Supper since its early early years, works on a bowl for the event. Top right: Jensen’s hands deftly shape a bowl. Local ceramic artists hope to craft at least 200 bowls for the annual fundraiser. - Observer photos/ANTHONY WILLIAMS

Gone are your basic alphabet and chicken noodle soups, along with the Styrofoam bowls. At Shelter From the Storm’s annual soup supper event, participants can choose their own original work of art to eat out of and take home.

“We have to have a minimum of 200 bowls, and it can be a challenge but there are some really unique ones to see,” said Dawna Flanagan, president of the Shelter From the Storm board of directors.

The Shelter From the Storm supper, held at 6 p.m. Saturday at Presbyterian Friendship Center, marks its 11th year thanks to its strong army of volunteers. Of course, there are those cooking, serving, planning and cleaning, but Flanagan said it is the volunteered work from local artists that helps pull in people year after year. That includes the dozens of bowls that Bob Jensen donates.

“One of the fun things with the soup supper is you’re making a couple dozen bowls and nothing really has to match,” said Jensen, who owns The Potter’s House with his wife, Judy.

Bowls for the supper come from potters like Jensen across Union, Baker and Wallowa counties. When he taught art at La Grande High School, Jensen would get students there to make a couple dozen bowls themselves, and he said those have become some of the most popular.

“Over the years it got to be where people would look for the student creations, because they’d get real funky with shapes and stuff,” Jensen said.

He said potters can enhance their work in its shape, by carving or in the glazing process with different colors.

Jensen said sometimes latecomers have to grab Styrofoam when the number in the crowd surpasses the number of hand-crafted bowls. He’s been involved with the supper since the early years, and said making soup bowls is a pretty easy operation for him. Even before working for himself, Jensen believed in producing and selling art outside of teaching made him a better artist.

“I used to joke with people that that’s how I supported my teaching habit,” he said. “I’ve always thought you should continue to produce what you teach, to stay creative, and I felt it added to my validity.”

Another volunteer with similar perspective on her art is Ellen Krieger, co-director of Academic and Career Advising at Eastern Oregon University. Krieger has been donating her handmade quilts to Shelter From the Storm and its supper since the beginning.

“It’s a form of recreation for me, something completely different than my day job that balances my life,” she said. “I work with students and a computer. I get home and get to work with fabrics and colors.”

Krieger said she started quilting for babies when she lived in Pullman, Wash., then saw a need when she moved back to La Grande and volunteered at the shelter office. She said it’s nice seeing someone in town who got one of her quilts and hearing the stories of how they enjoyed it, and is proud of the yearly soup supper.

“The shelter has made a good event out of it,” she said. “Tradition is important, the bowls are special and the soup is always really good.”

Shelter From the Storm helps victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, and the proceeds from the supper help support its cause.