Altar Guild chairman for Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Thelma Hahn has helped with the Los Alamos Empty Bowls Project for 13 years. "Besides working at and donating to the silent auction and making soup and bread, I usually make about 20 pottery bowls," she said.

Thelma, who taught art for Los Alamos Public Schools from 1970 to 1996, served on the National Art Education Association executive board and was elected a national elementary art director from 1987-1989.

On August 3, 1971 she married former Los Alamos Deputy Fire Chief Dale Hahn.

The New Mexico scholar for the National Gallery of Art's 50th anniversary, Thelma traveled to Washington, D.C. in 1991.

A Fulbright scholar, she studied in Japan in 1995.

A member of the Los Alamos School Board from 1997 to 2001, Thelma also founded Art Camp and served on the board of the Art Center at Fuller Lodge, and is now on the Mesa Public Library board.

Thelma visits the terminally ill as a Los Alamos Visiting Nuses hospice volunteer. She also makes prayer shawls to be sent throughout the United States.

Written by Karen Nilsson Brandt, copyright ©