Mennonite Kids Quilt for World Relief

Elementary and junior-high kids at Pleasant Valley Mennonite Church embellished and tied a quilt for auction July 31 at the Southern Tier Relief Sale. Students as young as primary schoolers worked in designs with fabric markers, while the upper-elementary class tied the coverlet to its batting and backing. The work went on during the church's June Vacation Bible School. Joyce House of Bath pieced and embroidered the work.

The children's quilt will be one of several dozen auctioned at Bath Fairgrounds beginning at 9:30 AM.

Dealers from as far as New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia gather to select and bid on high-quality work from the local Anabaptist community, in addition to furniture, agricultural equipment, and other items. Receipts go to the Mennonite Central Committee, which supports relief around the world, often serving needs provoked by disaster, genocide, and war.

The one-day event, first held in 1983, generally raises over $50,000. Pancake breakfasts are available from 7 AM, along with sales of meat, cheeses, produce, pies, and crafts. The Mennonite Central Committee's 10,000 Villages Store will offer fair trade craft items from the Third World. Barbecue, chicken dinners, and other foodstuffs will be available throughout the day.

Crowds also gather all day at the penny booth, where volunteers with a mechanical sorter again and again pour coins from jars collected by children and churches. Penny receipts, which are still welcome the day of the sale, go to clean water, food production, or family health projects.

Southern Tier Mennonite Relief Sale
July 31, 2004, beginning at 7 AM; auction begins at 9:30 Bath County Fairgrounds Free admission