MCC Relief Sale

This past weekend was the annual Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale to benefit Mennonite Central Committee. It is a great place to go hang out, eat good food, and talk to lots of people you know but may not see very often.

I went out on Friday evening for the open house and worked at my church's smoothie booth from 5-7pm. Then I walked around with Denise from 7-8:30. I jokingly call the relief sale "gluttony for the poor." Over the course of Friday evening to Saturday evening I ate: apple fritters, smoothie, lentils, hummus & pita, homemade ice cream, egg sandwich, taco salad, donuts, and other things I have forgotten already!

I was back out at the sale by 6am on Saturday morning to help my friend Michelle in the registration building registering buyers for bidder numbers. Denise and my friend Susie were also there. When we arrived it seemed really dark on the fairgrounds, there were no lights on in the parking lot, and only 1-2 mercury vapor lights on that I could see. When we got into the registration building we were told there was no electricity because there had been a fire overnight that had burned down four buildings !!! It was really hard to believe and comprehend until it got light enough to see the damage. The sale did go on, but almost everything ran on generator all day, and some changes had to be made.

The fire started at 1:30am when a hot water heater fell over onto a propane tank and ignited. At least one building was fully engulfed in a minute. Even though it destroyed four buildings, the fire was not nearly as bad as it could have been. No one was injured, including the three men roasting pork not too far from the buildings. If it would have happened the evening before or later in the morning, there would have been numerous people in and around those buildings. The four buildings destroyed were a pavilion that MCC and Choice Books was using, a partially enclosed building that a church was using to sell cheese, a building being used to sell pulled pork sandwiches, and a building we weren't using.

Enough words, here are some pictures.

Volunteers from Berkey Ave Mennonite Fellowship cutting cheese to sell. Check out that HUGE chunk of cheese!

Some of the quilts on display to be sold.

The rows and rows of quilts. There were over 225 quilts, wall hangings, afghans, and comforters that were donated and sold.

The lineup of items ready to go up on stage to be sold.

The large crowd at the quilt auction.

Selling a wall hanging. I was trying to get a good picture of the little kids sitting up there who were running sale information back and forth. They kept picking on each other! Must have been brother and sister.


The mother of a friend of mine makes an afghan each year to sell. Here it is! It didn't go for as much as past years, so get ready to bid on it next year!

A view of the burned buildings. The roasters in the foreground were being used to grill pork for pulled pork sandwiches. Unfortunately, there were no pulled pork sandwiches on Saturday after the fire. They also had to destroy many pies because of smoke damage.

Electric guys working on getting the electric lines back up and working.

A wider view of the destruction. The large quilt building is in the background.

Just as I was getting ready to leave someone pointed out that the Goodyear blimp was flying overhead. It circled over the grounds and headed back west. It was in the area for the Notre Dame game.

Overall, the sale was a very successful event. They raised nearly $10,000 more than last year, despite the fire, and will send over $350,000 to MCC after expenses have been paid.