'In Your Shoes' hosts supper during Town Meeting
By Ken Powers Community Reporter, Community Advocate
 

In Your Shoes, a giving circle, members (l to r) Debi Ledoux, Brenda Hayes, Tricia Guest, Terry Gavin and Donna Kelly stand at the bread station of the Stone Soup Supper, held during the intermission of Town Meeting. PHOTO/KEN POWERS

Westborough - Town Meeting attendees were treated to a Stone Soup Supper, sponsored by In Your Shoes, a giving circle, during the intermission of the meeting May 17.  

Donna Kelly came up with the idea, based on the 1947 book "Stone Soup," a folktale illustrated by Marcia Brown.

"It's my favorite book; it always has been," Kelly said. "It's a kids' book, but I think adults can benefit from it, too. It's about working together and the greater good that's achieved when everyone contributes what they can to a project or the solution of a problem."

Kelly said Anne Towle, Westborough's superintendent of schools, read the book to an elementary school class recently.

"It was amazing to see the way the kids responded to the story, and to Dr. Towle's reading of it," Kelly said.

About 100 members of Town Meeting took part in the Stone Soup Supper, feasting on soups, salads and breads donated from 30 businesses in town.

Kelly said the businesses making donations were most amazed by the fact that In Your Shoes was not going to make money off of the businesses' contributions, but was going to give away what had been given away.

"That, truly, took the longest time to explain to the businesses," Kelly said. "Everyone was great, though. We got a lot of monetary donations, too, from business and families. One gentleman, who was sitting at a table at Uno's when I went there looking for a donation overheard me asking Uno's for a donation and came up and handed me $25 for the Stone Soup Supper."

In Your Shoes is a nonprofit organization working to contribute time, talents and monetary resources to those in the Westborough community in need. Among the goals of the organization, created in March, is to educate and increase awareness of the needs of neighbors.