The hockey season had been over for months, however the model new Steinbach Centennial Enviornment was crammed to the rafters with beneficiant bidders, who adopted the recommendation of the auctioneer to boost greater than $11,000 for the Mennonite Central Committee at its annual public sale.
“You’ve opened your hearts by being right here, now open up your purse strings,” the auctioneer urged the large crowd attending the MCC public sale Saturday.
CARILLON ARCHIVES
Mrs Olga Friesen shows the clock her great-grandfather made in Chortitza, Russia in 1845.
The gang did so, and sufficient cash was raised on the sale to feed 3,900 kids in Viet Nam for a college yr; or 3,200 youngsters in Calcutta for a full yr within the MCC feeding program there. Ought to the public sale proceeds be designated for medical provides, MCC, as a member of the inter-church medical help program, can ship $80 value of medication for each greenback donated for this goal.
The MCC public sale in Steinbach raised $11,700, which all will go to the worldwide reduction work of the Mennonite Central Committee, however the particular areas haven’t but been designated.
Starting at simply after 10 a.m., the sale lasted for greater than eight hours and a whole lot of donated objects had been offered.
Bills for the sale had been stored at a minimal, with volunteers offering every part from auctioneers’ companies to accumulating cash from profitable bidders, to organizing visitors for the large occasion. All of the objects offered had been donated freed from cost.
It was an occasion with quite a few fascinating sidelights and the group of 4 auctioneers stored issues transferring, alternating on the loud speaker. John and Corny, often called “The Flying Kehlers”, or L.A. Barkman and Tom Wiebe would maintain the gang entertained with a curious comment concerning the objects supplied or merely with their rapid-fire auctioneering calls.
For a number of the consumers, like Olga Friesen, the public sale offered the chance to bid on an merchandise that will be of nice sentimental worth.
She purchased an vintage clock that her great-grandfather had made in Chortitza, Russia in 1845. Her father had at all times been in search of an authentic Lepp Clock, she mentioned, however individuals had been reluctant to half with them.
“John Henry Friesen was repairing the clock and he discovered the imprinted phrases 1845 Chortitza Peter Lepp when he was dissembling the gears. I couldn’t go up the chance of shopping for it.”
Mrs Friesen needed to bid $200 to purchase the clock, however mentioned it was value it for her household to now have possession of this household heirloom.
One other prized entry to the public sale was a big, framed image of purple poppies, created in petit-point by a Miss A. Neufeld of Winnipeg, which Walter Kroeker of Altona bought for $190.
This was an public sale the place some quilts offered for greater costs than a number of the used vehicles and the place often some purchaser discovered he didn’t actually know how you can use the merchandise he had simply bought, having bid on it solely to assist the trigger.
The sale of donated quilts added $2,800 to the public sale complete, with the best priced quilt purchased by Mrs C.C. Defehr of Winnipeg. She paid $200 for a quilt made by Mrs A.T. Loewen of Steinbach, comparable in sample to a quilt Mrs Ok.R. Barkman had introduced residence from an MCC public sale in Pennsylvania final yr.
Throughout the sale, eight used vehicles, numerous home goods, new furnishings and farm implements got here into the auctioneer’s ring. As objects had been offered, the profitable bidders made their option to the cashier within the lobby of the world to pay for them. At one level, two public sale rings had been working concurrently, one promoting small home goods and one other taking bids on quite a lot of bigger objects exterior.
Ok.R. Barkman, who headed the committee organizing the sale, mentioned they had been very glad with the public sale, and mentioned they in all probability would make this an annual occasion for Manitoba Mennonite church buildings. Though the sale was supported by the church buildings, it was organized by lay neighborhood leaders relatively than the ministry.
Two years in the past, an identical sale was held at Winkler and was additionally thought of a profitable occasion.
Ontario church buildings within the Hamilton and Waterloo-Kitchener areas, and Mennonite church buildings in Pennsylvania, have had profitable MCC auctions for years.
The success of the public sale, partially, may very well be attributed to the very fact it was for such a worthy trigger. A part of the benefit auctioneers needed to garner bids in all probability stemmed from the thought that if a bid turned out to be too excessive, the customer knew his cash could be used for the world’s needy individuals.
