Summit County Clay Artists - April Meeting

The Summit County Clay Artists met at Amie's, Sunday, April 22, 2012. She hosted a wonderful brunch at her pretty "mountain cabin" up in the blue river area, south of Breckenridge. Eight artists were present: Amie D., Pam H., Kristina N., Sue S., Grace K., Kathrine R., Sharon S., and me, Donna C. Pam & I shared our photos from the NCECA Conference.  It was a great opportunity to discuss and critique a wide variety of ceramic artwork with fellow potters.

Then we got to work on our "Cups for Water" events that are coming up in May with school children and the summer events with the Town of Breckenridge. More info will be published shortly about the 5th grader's project to raise money for water filters. The next cup sale for "Cups for Water" will be held at the Summit County High School, Friday, May 18. There will be at least 80 cups available for your selection with a donation of $20. We will be sending a check to Safe Water Now at the end of May with our collected procceeds to date. The generous members of our clay group also pitched in to help pay for the postcards we had printed for the project and distributed at NCECA. Thank you, ladies. Your caring and devotion to this project is overwhelming.

Our next group meeting will be at Kristina's home, also in blue river, on May 27, at 10:30.  Anyone interested in joining us, please contact Pam Herring or me.  pam@herringdesigns.com & djscausland@wildblue.net

News from Tanzania

I just received emails from Tina at Aid Tanzania and  Leslie at Safe Water Now.
They are both thrilled with our project. Good news, they have met and Tina &
Wantay visited the factory and learned how to prime and use the filters.  We have
our first filter in place. Tina & Wantay are using it now so that they can teach how to use
and take care of them. We have a sales event at the local high school coming up in May.
So we plan to send our first draft of funds at the end of May. I hope we can purchase 10
filters.
Thank you all for your interest and help,
Donna

Shipping donated cups

Here's a note from Pam Herring that explains the shipping for the donated cups.

SHIPPING NOTE:  We greatly appreciate any cups donated to the "Cups for
Water" project.  Donna and I, (project directors for "Cups for Water")
live in the Rocky Mountains.  They do not deliver US Mail to homes in
our county.  There is just too much snow. We have Post Office boxes or
receive delivery by Fed Ex or UPS.

The Arts Alive! Gallery in Breckenridge (our local artist co-op gallery)
will be receiving mailed cups delivered by Fed Ex or UPS. The gallery
is not organizing or participating other than to receive donated cups shipped
to their address.  We will collect all donated cups from the gallery.

Thanking you in advance,
  Pam Herring

How the project began

Having been a member of NCECA since the 70's, I have been exposed to projects like Potters for Peace (please visit their website) and the ceramic water filter factories. I met Ron Rivera at the Portland conference in 2006 and Manny Hernandez at the one in Phoenix in 2009. Manny spent some time telling me about his work.(google him and ceramic water filters and you will be amazed) He left me wondering what I could do to help.  In the summer of 2010, I had a Farmer's Market booth in Minturn, Colorado, next to the Aid Tanzania non-profit booth. I got to know Tina and her family and the reasons for their work.  I asked her if she knew about ceramic water filters and if they would help.  Well, of course they would. So I sent her the information and found out that Manny had started a factory in Arusha, Tanzania, which is about a 3 hours' drive for them. The scope of Tina's project is huge and funding is limited, so I asked my clay friends (we call ourselves the Summit County Clay Artists) if they would like to make cups to sell to raise money to purchase the filters for Aid Tanzania. Wonderful women that they are, they took the ball and ran with it. We've decided to make it an ongoing project. The local girl scouts and the high school art students have made and donated cups as well. We are currently collating our progress and will keep an ongoing update of the cups and monies raised along the side of this blog.

Cups for Water at NCECA

Pam Herring and I attended NCECA (The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) in Seattle, WA, March 27 - 31. 2012. We took along 1000 postcards explaining our project and asking for cup donations from the ceramic artists in attendance. We were both genuinely overwhelmed by the positive response from everyone we talked with.  So many potters, organizations, and educators said they would send a cup or create an event for the project. Thank you does not express our gratitude.  It was truly an amazing experience and we look forward to receiving those donations.

Cups for Water

The Summit County Clay Artists of Colorado are raising money to purchase ceramic water filters for the Maasai tribes people of the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area in Tanzania, Africa.  The filters are made in Arusha,Tanzania by Safe Water Now.  Please visit http://www.safewaternow.org/ to learn more.  The filters will be distributed by Aid Tanzania, a non-profit organization started by Wantay &Tina Irmakesen that promotes women's vocational training and sponsors education for the children.  Please visit http://www.aidtanzania.com/ to appreciate the needs and challenges of the Maasai.

Our clay group makes and collects cups from our clay friends.  Summer 2012, we will hold three clay events in coordination with the Town of Breckenridge Arts District. (more information coming) At these events, donated cups will be given as a Thank You Gift to anyone donating $20 to the Maasai cause.  All monies, 100%, is sent directly to the factory to purchase filters.  All materials, advertising, sales and fund-raising efforts are donated by our clay friends.  We are grateful for any cup donations for this worthy cause.

Cup donations may be sent by Fed Ex or UPS to:
Arts Alive! Gallery
Cups for Water Project
500 S. Main Street, Suite 2B
Breckenridge, Colorado 80434-0738
Phone: 970-453-0450
Please include your contact information and email address.

or contact:
Donna Causland:  djscausland@wildblue.net
Pam Herring:  pam@herringdesigns.com