Colby-Sawyer College's Family Weekend Features Music, Crafts, Food, Empty Bowls Project
NEW LONDON, N.H. - Colby-Sawyer College encourages community members to participate in this year's Family Weekend, a fall festival that features music and a wide range of crafts and activities.
One of the weekend's highlights, the Family Fair will expand this year to include dozens of craftspeople from around New England, offering creations ranging from intricate handcrafted jewelry and clothing to jams and fudge. The fair will also feature live music such as an interactive Native American Drumming performance, as well as freshly pressed apple cider made by the college's Food for Thought class. Family Fair will be held on Saturday, Oct. 10 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the quad, and admission is free. In case of inclement weather, the event will be held in the Coffin Field House at the Dan and Kathleen Hogan Sports Center.
The Empty Bowls Project, part of an international movement to fight hunger through the arts, has been part of the Family Fair for the last five years. The project invites artists to create and then donate ceramic bowls, which are sold at the fair to raise funds for various charities. Guests choose the bowl they wish to buy and are then served soup in the bowl with a side of bread. The Empty Bowls Project will be held from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10. Bowls will cost between $10 and $20 with soup and bread, and 100 percent of the proceeds will be donated to the New Hampshire Food Bank
This year Art Professor Jon Keenan hopes to replicate the Empty Bowls Project's past successes at Colby-Sawyer. With the help of more than 50 of his ceramics students, he is preparing for an event that has always been received with great enthusiasm during Family Weekend. After selling out of bowls every year in the past, the students are working especially hard for the next month to create bowls for the event, in addition to completing their other course requirements. Sodexo, which manages Colby-Sawyer's dining services, will again generously supply the soup and bread for Empty Bowls, and 20 students will volunteer to serve soup and explain the project at the event.
After raising nearly $1,500 through the project last year, Professor Keenan anticipates even more success for Empty Bowls this fall. While the event has successfully helped feed hungry people and raised social awareness within the community, he says there is also a “feel-good aspect” to taking part in the project.
“During these economically challenging times, people seem even more interested in helping those who are less fortunate and in need of support,” he says. “It's important that we assist others in times of need. If we can provide a measure of support that always feels good.”
After the Family Fair, adults 21 or older can head off to Sawyer Fine Arts Center to enjoy a 5 p.m.wine tasting provided by Rockwell's at the New London Inn. This event is open to the public and costs $25 to attend.
Kids of all ages are invited to attend the Kid's Night Out event at the Lethbridge Lodge. The event includes fun activities, dinner and an interactive performance with family musician, Roger Day. The event runs from 4 p.m. to 9p.m. on Saturday, October 10, and the fee for this program is $10 per child. A family musician who writes and performs original live music, Day encourages children to “sing loud, jump high, and dream big.” His performances include lyrics full of stories that inspire kids to follow their dreams and engage audience in choruses and lively rhythms.
Before his career as a family musician, Day was a popular college coffeehouse act, earning five consecutive nominations as Coffeehouse Entertainer of the Year by The National Association of Campus Activities. He began writing children's songs one year during the holiday season when he realized that cash was running short and Christmas wish lists were growing long. Finding success with the song he wrote, Day was encouraged to continue writing family-friendly tunes. With three full-length CD's, numerous honors and awards, and a concert DVD that promises to turn “all couch potatoes into curly cheese fries,” Roger Day comes to Colby-Sawyer as a seasoned professional in children's entertainment.
The weekend promises excitement with a lineup of sporting events on campus, all of which are open to the public and free to attend. The sporting events are kicked off on Friday by a 4 p.m. tennis match between Colby-Sawyer women's tennis and Castleton at the Kelsey Courts. The women's volleyball team will also play on Friday, taking on Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts at 7 p.m. in the Coffin Field House at the Dan and Kathleen Hogan Sports Center.
Saturday's athletic events include both the men's and women's soccer teams facing off against Eastern Nazarene College on the Kelsey Athletic Fields. The men's team will play at 12:30 p.m., and the women will play at 3 p.m. The women's rugby team will also compete on the Kelsey Athletic Fields at 1 p.m. when they play against St. Michael's College.
-Jessica K. McLavey '10
Jessica K. McLavey is an English major and an intern in College Communications at Colby-Sawyer College.
