Published: November 02, 2009 09:15 am         

32nd annual Mennonite Relief Sale is scheduled to begin Friday

Last year the Mennonite Relief Sale raised more than $140,000 to help provide aid to those who need it at home and around the world. This year they want to do better.

The money is raised from auctioning of thousands of quilts and craft items, said Luella Unruh, one of the sale organizers. This is the 32nd annual sale, which will help provide better farming practices, quality water and other benefits for people around the world.

“The money raised goes toward world relief of hunger, helping build water supply for people and a variety of relief projects we help with,” Unruh said.

The money is distributed wherever there is a need both in the United States and around the world. Craft items and quilts will be offered in a small auction Friday evening and the rest on Saturday, she said.

The event will be held at Chisholm Trail Expo Center in Enid.

Friday the event begins at 5 p.m. with a $7-a-plate pork loin dinner. Other food booths also will be open. At 6:30 p.m. the Shafer Gospel Quartet will perform and after the program a number of items will be auctioned from craft and quilt booths.

Saturday begins with a pancake and sausage breakfast 7 to 9:30 a.m. for $5 per plate. All booths open for sale at 8 a.m. and at 9 a.m. the craft and miscellaneous auction begins. When that auction is concluded, or at 11 a.m., the quilt auction begins. At noon the People’s Choice quilt will be sold. That quilt will be voted on by those who attend Friday evening.

“Last year we raised more than ever before,” Unruh said of the $140,000 the auction brought.

One special booth is titled Ten Thousand Villages. It contains items collected from third world countries. The makers of those items will receive a living wage as a result of the purchase of their product.

In the Penny Power booth pennies are dropped into a wheelbarrow with the intention to raise money designated to bring water to villages that do not have it. Those water sources are created by building sand dams or digging wells. The goal for Penny Power this year is $500,000 nationwide.

A Hydro youth, Tyler Entz, will set up a shoeshine stand and those proceeds also will be donated to relief efforts. The auction is totally non-profit, Unruh said.

“This is a big event. We raised the most ever last year. That money goes to the Mennonite Central Committee to be used as needed wherever there is the greatest need. There also is a silent auction this year,” she said.

The annual event is sponsored by Oklahoma Mennonite, Amish and Brethren in Christ churches in Oklahoma. It is one of 46 relief sales held in the U.S. and Canada to raise money for the Mennonite Central Committee.