There’s another game in town!

My Souper Bowl Adventure

By
Larry Meiller and his Souper Bowl collection.

Every year in late January I get a kick out of telling people that I will be attending the Souper Bowl that year. Their eyes get big and then I quickly say, “Not that one…this one is spelled SOUPER Bowl.” It’s been going on for 27 years and is a fundraiser for the UW Madison chapter of Habitat for Humanity. So far, 18 homes have been built as a result of this, the major fundraiser event for the group. It’s always held the Saturday before Super Bowl week.

When you arrive, you pay and then pick from an unbelievable collection of bowls, made and donated by area potters and ceramics students. This year there were two rows of them, as you can see in the photo. Then you proceed to the soup line, where you select the soup you want – you choose from maybe 8 kinds of soups. You also get a salad and bread, and desserts are available as well. The workers are all volunteers and I and two friends were served by members of the UW Football team. I know Joy Cardin of WPR fame was serving later in the afternoon as well. While you eat you’ll enjoy music from a live band and you can enter the silent auction for other bowls, or buy a raffle ticket and see if you can win one. Last year they served about one thousand people and the individual charge was $25, or $50 for a family of four.

I’ve attended almost every one of these events and as you can see in the photo above, taken in my kitchen, that I have a LOT of bowls from the event. I use them every day for one thing or another and my cats, KoKo and Tiger, each have their own souper bowl as well!

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I’ve often thought this would be a great fund-raising idea for other groups in the state. I believe almost everything is donated…even the soup comes from local restaurants. If you would like to learn more, drop into your search engine: Souper Bowl, Madison Wisconsin. You could also drop me an email if you want to follow up, and I can locate the local organizers for you.

Cheers,

Larry