spilling the beans

Hope and Fresh Water: MudLOVE handmade pottery benefits Central African Republic

By / Photography By | August 15, 2016
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People in the Central African Republic use this pump to fill up their jerry cans so they have their daily water supply. It's common for these pumps to be used all day long, and some people might walk miles to get the water they need.
“You can’t have pottery without water, or it would just be dust,” says Luke Wright, founder of MudLOVE ceramics studio based in Warsaw, IN. “It’s the same for life: You gotta 
have water.”
That’s why 20% of the profit from every purchase of MudLOVE handmade mugs and accessories supports Water for Good, a faith-based not-for-profit that drills and maintains wells in the Central African Republic. Since Wright launched the business from a friend’s basement in 2009, MudLOVE has donated more than $350,000 to Water for Good and now employs 50 people and makes around 20,000 products each month.
Wright started making mugs and bowls with “nothing more than a box of clay, a stamp set and this vision of giving.” When he made his first batch of bracelets stamped with words like “faith,” “hope” and “love” in July 2010, 
the business really took off. “That fall 
I had a line of people trying to get those bracelets.”
 
Now MudLOVE sells its popular bracelets and classic mugs online, at various bookstores and gift shops, at its two retail locations—MudLOVE Downtown in Warsaw and Belove in Winona Lake—and makes custom mugs for local small businesses including Light Rail Coffee & Roaster, Tree of Life Bookstore and Cerulean.
 
Another way to spread the MudLOVE is through its fundraising program. Groups sell mugs and bracelets to raise money for any cause, from funding a new playground to paying adoption fees. “A lot of good comes out of that whole partnership,” says Wright. “It kind of doubles our impact. Even though we sell the product at a discounted price, we still raise money off each bracelet for Water for Good.”

In that same vein, MudLOVE recently partnered with Ben Higgins, Warsaw native and star of the popular reality TV show The Bachelor, and Humanity & Hope United Foundation to raise money to create jobs for people in impoverished areas of Honduras. Through the Get Hope. Give Hope. campaign, 50% of the proceeds from every “hope” bracelet sold goes to creating farming jobs for Hondurans in La Corosa or Remolina. The purchase of just one band creates one day of work for a Honduran man or woman and also provides one week of clean water for someone living in the Central African Republic.

Learn more at mudLOVE.com/hope.

MudLOVE Downtown
Shop and production facility
122 S. Buffalo St.

Warsaw, IN


Belove
Sells many socially conscious brands and donates 10% of each purchase to either Water for Good, adoption support or fighting human trafficking through Destiny Rescue and Show Hope.
804 Park Ave. G

Winona Lake, IN

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