Mennonite Relief Sale, Day one

Where are we today ?
New Hamburg Ontario

        Now we are in the area and usually always attend The Mennonite Relief Sale on Saturday for a bit. Suzie's Mother and Father have been involved with this project since its inception in 1967. Since then over 14 million dollars has been raised.

 " All merchandise and services are donated which means all funds raised on sale days are donated directly to Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a not-for-profit relief, service and development and peace agency of the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in North America. MCC seeks to demonstrate God’s love by working among people around the world suffering from poverty, conflict, oppression and natural disaster. Started in 1920 in response to hunger in the Ukraine, MCC strives for peace, justice and dignity of all people."

        Her mother began with the donut project and her father with initial setup and organization. Fro a few years at the beginning they took their two ponies and gave the children pony rides. Suzie's father still oversees setup and her mother handed over the donut project a few years ago. She has recently been in charge of selling the reserved seats available in the arena for the Auctions that take place. This year her mom is very frustrated waiting in the hospital for bypass surgery and unable to participate first time in 45 years! So Suzie has volunteered to take care of the seat sale this year with some help from our nephew's wife Shelly and maybe her Aunt Dolores if need be. I will be around as well. Suzie, her sister and brother have not helped out since they were much young with the donut project and the ponies.

        So on this very hot afternoon (30c, 85f) I drove Suzie and Shelly to the Arena grounds at 3:30  so that they could get set up and begin selling the reserved seat tickets. I dropped them off and cane back home to putter around a bit more. I will return later for a bite to eat with Suzie and watch some of the events.

Heading to the Arena

just past the Cheese Factory

tents getting setup 

Vendors camping

parking is empty yet

        Tonight is the quilt preview and a quite a few vendors open after 5 pm, at 7 pm is a silent auction and a furniture Auction. Our Nephew Greg is one of the Auctioneers. He has been auctioning professionally for quite a few years, as well as dairy farming and is pretty darn good auctioneer, I must say.

        So about 5:30 I headed back to the Fairgrounds, found a parking spot and made my way thru the crowds to the Arena and found Suzie, Shelly and Gramma sitting there selling seat tickets.

Large line ups for food

HP Roth  and Aunt Delores

Long lineups for food everywhere

not busy yet only 6 pm

        When I got there the girls were hungry so I grabbed them a couple hot dogs, only $1.50 each, quick an easy. I wanted a lamb on a bun , stood in a long line about 10 minutes and it did not move. So the line next was for fresh hot Tea Balls (dough balls deep fried covered with icing sugar) so I grabbed a dozen of those wolfed down a couple and to the rest back to the girls.

Suzie, Gramma (97 yrs young) and Shelly

Quilt viewing

furniture to be auctioned

more furniture

The couple that bought this awesome bedroom suite, sure got a great deal!

Dining tent

lineup for sausage

Tea Balls 

pretty good prices

        Still wanting a lamb sausage and fries I went back and stood in line about 15 minutes for the sausage. At least everybody is friendly and chatting so the time went quick.

Thats what I lined up for

cooking the lamb sausage

        Now with my tasty sausage in hand and mouth, I ate my way thru the line for my fries. Worked out perfectly , sausage done and ready for fresh hot hand cut fries.

then another line for fries

Greg Auctioning furniture

         This a a not a great video clip of Greg Auctioning but he is loud and clear. He did this for about one hour and sold lots of furniture.

The Auction Video, you need to be there to understand him.

good crowd for the auction

Maybe tomorrow

        Now all wrapped up by 9 pm. head back home, I can post the blog, relax a bit and to bed , we are up early and back to the sale for 6 am. For more fun with the crowds.

       Thanks for stopping by.

Check out the map below to see where we have been this summer

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