Members of the Ousley Junior High National Junior Honor Society were ready to raise money for a good cause and they had picked out how they wanted to do it. Only problem? In all the excitement, they seemed to have forgotten to actually pick a cause.

But after a typhoon struck the Philippines in November 2013, killing at least 6,000 people and devastating the county, that "cause" was decided on pretty quickly. | The Ousley Junior High National Junior Honor Society and its officers - from left to right: Hayden G., Lilly N., Britney L., Gina N., Stephanie M. and Torren T. - help raise funds for the relief effort in the Philippines.

After 20 years of teaching ceramics at Martin High School, Stacy Kouba got the chance to do what she'd wanted to do for at least 18 of them: participate in an Empty Bowls Project event.

Started by the nonprofit organization The Imagine Render Group, the Empty Bowls Project is a compassionately unique undertaking that raises money and awareness to combat hunger. Artists - students in Kouba's Ceramics III art class, in this case - create handcrafted bowls in exchange for a soup and bread dinner and cash donations. Guests are asked to keep a bowl as a reminder of all the empty bowls in the world.By the end of the event, held in the Martin cafeteria, Kouba was thrilled to announce that her students, who had created 125 bowls, had raised about $2,000 for the Tarrant Area Food Bank. | Guests of the first-ever Empty Bowls Project dinner at Martin High School admire some of the 125 handcrafted, ceramic bowls created by Martin Ceramics III art students for the event.