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Providing basic needs Ohio Mennonite Relief Sale gives global help for food, shelter, safe drinking water

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More than 100 quilts will be auctioned at the Ohio Mennonite Relief Sale in Kidron. The relief sale takes more than 400 volunteers to organize, not including the volunteers who make quilts or pieces of furniture for the auction.

Train rides were a highlight of last year’s Ohio Relief Sale. The 2010 event is Aug. 6-7 in Kidron.

Auction goers check out the items in the gymnasium at Central Christian High School at 2009’s Ohio Mennonite Relief Sale. The sale featuring wood items and collectibles will begin at 9 a.m. followed by a quilt auction at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 7.

Photo By Joel Troyer file photosLandon Rice and his mother Sharon Rice enjoy one of the many handmade wooden toys, this one with racing cars, at last year’s Ohio Mennonite Relief Sale.

By KATY GANZ

Staff Writer

Money spent in Kidron at the Ohio Mennonite Relief Sale helps people in countries across the globe who may not have clean drinking water, food to eat or a safe place to sleep.

The Ohio Mennonite Relief Sale is Friday and Saturday, Aug. 6 and 7. This year, the sale is working along side the Steve Wingfield Evangelistic Association, which will be providing four days of activities and entertainment from Aug. 5-8.

"It will be our regular auction and raising money for MCC (Mennonite Central Committee), but along with that, Steve Wingfield has a youth concert on Thursday night, and entertainment throughout the weekend, along with nightly services," said Perry Miller, president of the relief sale board.

The Steve Wingfield Evangelistic Association has a lot of support locally, said Jessica Taylor, administrative manager for SWEA.

Because there were tents already set up for the Mennonite Relief Sale, it was an ideal opportunity for both MCC and SWEA to participate. Miller said the entire event is being called Under One Tent, but the SWEA portion is called Summerfest 2010.

"We are an evangelistic ministry and our sole purpose is to reunite the people of the area," Taylor said. "We just want to come and deliver evangelistic messages to make sure people in the area hear a positive message of Christ's love."

Summerfest 2010 will include a youth concert Thursday featuring the band Polen, and Friday and Sunday's entertainment will include local performer John Schmid and musician Carla Karst.

All the concerts and entertainment included in Summerfest 2010 is free, Taylor said.

"We are very committed to seeing that our community comes together around the cause of Christ and we believe we both (MCC and SWEA) have those similar interests," said Tim McAvoy, vice president of ministry operations for SWEA.

As for the relief sale, all the proceeds will go to support MCC's efforts to conduct relief work and peace and justice work around the world.

One MCC project that has a lot of support locally is called Penny Power, where local churches are asked to collect pocket change.

"Last year we collected $65,000 in change in Penny Power for water projects," Miller said. "So like, in Brazil the money is used to buy material to build cisterns to collect water in the rainy season and tanks to store it through the dry season. That's one of the major problems, having clean water."

The events for the relief sale will begin Friday night with the silent auction in the large tent at 4 p.m.

Saturday begins with a 7 a.m. breakfast and a 5K Run for Relief. The same day, the arts, collectibles and wood auction will begin at 9 a.m., the quilt auction will take place at 10 a.m. and a special items auction will occur at 1 p.m.

In addition to the auction, Saturday's events will include children's activities, a 10 a.m. cornhole tournament, a 12 p.m. volleyball tournament and a 4 p.m. performance by Team Xtreme.

Steve Wingfield Evangelistic Ministries will provide the entertainment for Saturday.

"Lesha Campbell, a children's evangelist with puppets will perform and so will Team Xtreme. They'll rip some stuff apart, knock some bricks over, different muscular feats, rip phone books and stuff like that," Taylor said.

The relief sale takes more than 400 volunteers to organize, not including the volunteers who make quilts or pieces of furniture for the auction, Miller said.

There will be more than 100 large quilts auctioned off in addition to a Keim Lumber grandfather clock, and items from 10,000 Villages will be sold indoors.

As for the MCC's efforts to bring better shelter, education and clean water to third world countries, "it wouldn't happen without relief sales and this type of effort," Miller said.