The 54th Annual Mennonite Central Committee Relief Sale had a special purpose this year. The event is raising money for the ongoing relief efforts to help Ukrainians.
The Relief Sale in Hutchinson is one of many held across North America with donations used by the MCC world-relief organization to provide water, food and health care to needy people in more than 55 countries.
Last year’s MCC Sale was held in July instead of the usual month of April and the sweet German Mennonite dessert, which looks and tastes more like a doughnut, could not be made because of the intense heat in the trailer where they are fried.
People waited patiently in lines in many of the buildings Friday evening to get their favorite Russian-German and Swiss Mennonite foods, including Verenike, sausage, bohne berrogi, borscht, homemade bread, zwieback and pies.
In the Meadowlark Building, visitors wove in and out of the hanging quilts on display Friday evening to see which one they would like to purchase at the quilt auction that was held Saturday. As Carol Zehr Ewy walked around admiring the quilts, she was surprised to find one that had her Aunt Lucie Zehr’s name embroidered on one of the quilt blocks. She looked closer and found more family and friends’ names on the quilt. The information sheet on the quilt said it was given to Vi Zehr King in 1934 and was donated to the auction by her daughter Jan King Kauffman and Nancy Shear.
In the Domestic Arts building, artists Janet Regier, Grace Adam and Miriam Goertzen-Regier demonstrated how to make Easter eggs, called pysanky. They create pysanky by hand decorating eggs, using the traditional Ukrainian method of using beeswax and colored dyes.
In addition to Saturday’s quilt auction, which sold more than 200 quilts and quilt-related items, there was a general auction, a silent auction, a kids auction, a memorabilia auction and a surplus auction. Other items sold were cars, tractors, lawnmowers, craft items, garden plants, souvenirs, baked goods, cheese and meat.
As reported in the Salina Journal.
