Celebrating 20 Years of Create to Donate Pottery Workshop

In the early 2000s, Country Day had just completed construction on the Hance Fine Arts Center. When Kay Ethridge, a potter and a Country Day parent first saw the new Ceramics Studio, she knew it needed to be shared with the greater community.

Kay was also an active volunteer at Urban Ministry Center (now Roof Above), where she helped neighbors craft soup bowls for the Soup on Sunday fundraiser benefiting the local hospice organization. Her inspired idea to connect these efforts sparked Country Day’s 20-year tradition of making clay creations in support of others.

For many years, the event involved upwards of 100 students and their families molding and decorating simple soup bowls that were later fired and sold at Soup on Sunday, the annual fundraiser of VIA Health Partners (then called Hospice and Palliative Care Charlotte Region). On average, Country Day has donated between 50–100 bowls each year—totaling more than 1,000 handmade pieces given over the past two decades!