Relief Sale Raises Record Amount for International Relief

An Alberta record, $210,000 was raised for international relief, peace and development work on the weekend of July 4 and 5 at the annual Mennonite Central Committee Relief Sale, held this year in Sherwood Park, AB.   The sale has been a regular summer event in Alberta since 1975, with host duties rotating between Didsbury, Coaldale/Lethbridge, and Edmonton/Sherwood Park.  It is one of 47 sales held all over North America, which raise over 5 million dollars each year for MCC, a non-profit organization that began in 1920 as the relief, development and peace committee of the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in Canada and the United States.  Mennonite Central Committee now works in 56 countries world-wide.

The sale began with a bang, as over 50 participants from all over the province joined in bike and walk-a-thon fundraisers, raising over $34,000.  One 84-year-old woman walked 9 km and found 42 sponsors. 

The heart of the sale is the live auction.  Beautiful handmade quilts, hand-carved woodwork, paintings, and other items were donated, and bid on by interested donors.  The item that kicked off the auction – a water jug symbolic of the more than 40 MCC water-related projects in 20 countries – was sold to numerous bidders, for a whopping total of $18,000.  Other sale functions included an on-going silent auction, plus a province-wide coin collecting drive called Penny Power, which culminated at the Sale and raised $18,000.  All donations and auction purchases exceeding the fair-market-value by at least 25%, are eligible for a charitable tax receipt.

Another tradition of the Sale are the booths of ethnic foods – Borscht, farmer sausage and Vereneke (cottage cheese perogies), as well as Vietnamese and Chinese cuisine.  Clothing, fabrics, and smaller items were available at other booths.

The record-setting result of the Relief Sale could not have come at a better time.  Food and Water crises brought on by political unrest, drought, rising fuel costs and a host of other factors have brought human need all over the world to extremely critical levels, while at the same time driving up the cost of relief and development work.  Additionally, this year's seemingly unending litany of disasters and emergencies (flooding in Mozambique and other countries in Southern Africa, the devastating hurricane in Myanmar/Burma, the earthquake in the Sichuan province of China, and now rising food shortages in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe) mean that the need for funds is higher than ever.

In compassionate response to this need, Albertans have been generous in donating their time, materials, money, and energy to making the Sherwood Park Relief Sale a great success.  The buzz of anticipation is beginning for next year's sale, planned for the Calgary/Didsbury area in June 2009.  In 2010 this giant festival rotates to Coaldale