The Hill School is once again on Pottstown’s Historic House Tour, but this year there will be a special open house taking place at the Center for the Arts at 860 Beech Street. Hill’s Director of Security – and fellow girls’ basketball coach! – will be showcasing his glass-making and poetry. Please stop by to see this multi-talented artist in action and support The Mercury’s Operation Holiday. See below for details in the press release provided by The Hill…
On Sunday, December 8th from 2pm to 7pm, Glass Tears founder Randal S. Doaty will be holding an open house at the Center for the Arts at the Hill School located at 860 Beech Street in Pottstown. Doaty is a local glass artist and poet who will be showcasing his Glass Tears creations and poetry, as well as selling his custom Glass Tears Christmas tree ornaments to visitors.
Doaty will be handcrafting special Christmas Tears ornaments with his flame working torch to sell as a fundraising effort. All of the proceeds from the sale of his custom creations will go to benefit the Pottstown Mercury’s Operation Holidays to benefit local families at Christmas. These special ornaments will only be sold at this special Open House event and are not available for sale at the Glass Tears webstore.
The Mercury’s stories of families facing difficult challenges during the holiday season inspired Doaty to offer his unique gifts to raise money for this local effort. Randal Doaty is currently the Director of Security at the Hill School. He is also known throughout the community as a real estate business man and former Chief of Police. On Sunday he will put on his artist’s hat and share another side.
The Glass Tears concept was born when Doaty noticed a scrap of glass sparkling in the sunlight in a scrap glass bucket at Taylor Backes glass studio in Boyertown. He remembers thinking “glass tear” when he saw glass dropping during a visit to the studio. Weeks later, Doaty commissioned his long-time friend and fellow glass artist Will Dexter to create a similar free standing glass teardrop as a sympathy gift for a good friend.
The original glass teardrop Dexter created was beautiful, but it had no voice. Doaty decided to pen the very first poem he had ever written entitled “Glass Tears”. The union of the glass art and the poetry became a winning combination. Others who saw the unique sympathy gift began to order them and the Glass Tears business was born. To date Doaty had written more than 400 Glass Tears poems and has also published his first book of poetry.
The original intent of the Glass Tears gift was an expression of sympathy, but today these gifts are used for a wide range of occasions. “Tears are the punctuation marks in life’s most powerful moments” says Doaty. His glass art and poetry are now used to convey messages of courage, hope, faith, joy, sorrow, friendship, thanks and much more. These special keepsakes have been sold around the world and as far away as Australia and Africa.
The special Christmas tree ornaments that Doaty will be crafting on Sunday are his special occasion tears represented by their unique colors glass. He has an emerald tear of hope, a blue Christmas teardrop for grief support, a purple tear of courage, a pink breast cancer battle tear, an ivory tear of love or faith, plus several more. He even has a black onyx “Biker’s Tear” that has become popular with motorcycle enthusiasts.
The ornaments and decorative hangers will sell for $15 each or two for $25. They will only be sold as fast as he can handcraft them at the event or while his supplies last. This is a great opportunity to help local families who cannot afford a special holiday of their own. Doaty hopes to inspire other local businesses to step in and support the Operation Holiday during these difficult economic times.
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