The sale is sponsored by West Coast Mennonite Central Committee and took place April 4-5 on the main campus of Fresno Pacific University. An estimated $200,000 was raised for relief efforts worldwide at the sale, one of a network of events across the United States and Canada.
Visitors to the sale enjoy foods from a variety of cultures and can purchase books, plants, art, antiques and collectables. But each year the stars are the hundreds of quilts, comforters, afghans, wall hangings and baby blankets auctioned off in FPU Special Events Center.
Among the quilts of special interest this year were:
· One featuring squares of hand-embroidered flowers. A family donated the squares, which were several decades old, to MCC and volunteers at the Reedley MCC Office did the piecing and quilting. The sale price was $7,000.
· "Women's Voices of the Civil War": each block depicts a story about a woman during the war. The quilting was done by former Shafter County (CA) Sheriff Rodney Isaak. It sold for $5,000.
· A quilted commemoration of the 30 years of Run for Relief, a 10K run that happens on the Saturday morning of each sale weekend and begins and ends at the FPU track. The quilt included swatches from each year's run and was quilted by FPU alumni Christa (Bryan) Wiens and Jamie (Porter) Mack (both BA '99). It sold for $2,600.
Volunteers staffing the sale included FPU students organized by the university Office of Spiritual Formation, who served more than 400 hours in various capacities. For more about the work of MCC West Coast, call 559-638-6911 or go to westcoast.mcc.org/
Mennonite Central Committee, of which MCC West Coast is a part, is an international relief organization sponsored by Mennonite, Brethren and related churches that since 1920 has practiced relief, development and peace in the name of Christ. Some 93 percent of sale proceeds directly help those in need.an
(Thanks to Jennifer Deibert, communications assistant, West Coast Mennonite Central Committee, and Karen Wall, member of the sale board.)