MCC SALE RAISES AWARENESS, FUNDS FOR WORLDWIDE RELIEF
JEREMY WALTNER – PUBLISHER
Ever since its debut in 1987, the Mennonite Central Committee relief sale designed to raise funds for worldwide assistance has provided an opportunity for men, women and children of all ages to come together for a common cause. It has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars that has been used in immeasurable ways to benefit those in need around the globe.
But it has also done something else — help keep the organization that has been around for more than 100 years in the public eye.
“For me, the important thing is to keep MCC in front of the people,” said Edie Tschetter, who has worked with the relief sale since the beginning and was once again a key organizer for the 2022 South Dakota MCC Relief Sale held in Freeman last Saturday, July 9. “To keep people’s needs in mind, whether it’s in the Ukraine or other hunger issues, and making people aware is just as important as raising the money.”
That mission was on full display as the 33rd sale of its kind unfolded at Freeman Academy’s Pioneer Hall Saturday morning and early afternoon. There were activities for kids that included the assembly of school kits for children whom the assemblers will never know, a silent auction and craft and food sales that will provide assistance for families whom those buying will never know.
And there was a live auction — one of the hallmarks of the sale — that included blessing bids in which bidders were given the opportunity to contribute to specific causes at whatever level of their choosing, the cumulative effort adding up to thousands of dollars.
One of the blessing bids was for the people of Ukraine, and at the start of the auction, a representative from MCC in Kansas shared a story about receiving a message from an international student from that war-torn country who had stayed with them.
“She was driving in her car with her children and looked behind to see her husband and her house left behind as they were fleeing to safety,” Tschetter said. “People need to hear those stories. Even though we see things like that on TV, when you can put a personal touch on it and know your money is going directly there, that matters.”
It’s still too early to tell just how much this year’s MCC sale raised, but Tschetter said the financial report the day of the sale was $34,000.
“It’s still so tentative,” she said. “Money is still coming in.”
Part of the overall fundraising effort included one of the highlights of the sale — the “pie guys” portion of the live auction that debuted in 2018. This year’s competition included defending champion Steve Friesen, Hutterthal Mennonite Church Pastor Randall Kohler, Freeman Academy Head of School Brad Anderson and Freeman Academy Technology Director Nathan Schrag, who raised $2,000 between them.
Kohler’s chocolate pie took the cake, bringing in $800.
Schrag’s “Midnight Apple” generated $500 and Anderson’s Kentucky-favorite sugar cream and Friesen’s cherry generated $375 apiece.
But what was almost more fun than anything, Tschetter said, was that Friesen had with him granddaughter Finley McCune, who also had baked a cherry pie that was auctioned at the end, “and hers went higher than grandpas,” she said — $500 to be exact.
Other items that sold well included a “Antique Lace” 103 x 103 quilt donated by Joyce Palmateer, who grew up attending Hutterthal Mennonite Church and is a longtime supporter of the sale who today lives in Topeka, Kan. Her quilt brought $1,050 — the highest single selling item of the day.
Other examples of higher-dollar items include a wooden rocker made and donated by Duane Tieszen that brought $775 and a “Trip Around the World” quilt pieced and donated by Phyllis Schrag and hand-quilted by Rosella Schwartz brought $400.”
“It was good — it was fun,” Tschetter said of the sale, which was held last year using a scaled-back version because of concerns about Covid-19 and which was canceled altogether in 2020.
The challenge moving forward, she said, is getting the younger generation involved and finding auction items that sell well. The quilts, for example, don’t bring what they once did.
“We just have to be creative and try to find ways to get others into it,” she said. “It’s tough; summer is busy with a lot of conflicts and people are gone, but what can you do? We just have to do our best, and that’s what we’re doing.”
