NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Jim Robb with the Kansas Mennonite Relief Sale said as the war still continues in Ukraine so does the support of the Mennonite Central Committee, the group that receives the money made from the sale.
"We still have a group of people that are there," Robb said. "They are called MCC partners. They are the people who are on the ground there working with refugees, people who have lost their homes, remnants of churches, we try to get them what they need, as much as we can, food and medical assistance, just try to make sure that they know they are not forgotten and we can give them a little bit of hope."
The goal of the whole sale is to help the Mennonite Central Committee in their work around the globe. The Mennonite Central Committee strives to make peace a part of everything they do. The original organization in 1920 was to help Mennonites from what is now Ukraine avoid starvation. The efforts of the sale bring together volunteers from across the state's Mennonite churches.
"We have a group of thousands," Robb said. "It's really hard to figure, when you think in terms of, we send out requests to churches to provide pies and bread and peppernuts and poppyseed rolls and cinnamon rolls and all of those kinds of things. You start multiplying that out and it gets to be well over 1000 pretty fast. We had a verenike making day two Saturdays ago, that in itself, we had 150 volunteers in the morning and probably another 80 in the afternoon. That's 230 volunteers, right there."
The schedule of events starts with sale booths opening at 4 p.m. Friday, with the feeding of the multitude also starting at that time, and the silent auction starting at 5 p.m. and packing of hygiene kits starts at 6 p.m. Friday.
"Last year, some 42,000 hygiene kits went out around the world," Robb said. "It's things like toothbrushes and bars of soap and towels and the kinds of things that would fit easily into a bag that people can pick up and take with them and be able to take care of one of the basic human needs."
On Saturday, breakfast starts in Cottonwood Court at 7 a.m., with booths open at 8 a.m. The 5K Run for Relief is at 8 a.m., with the silent auction bidding reopening from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The quilt and general auctions both starting at 8:45 a.m. and the children's auction at 10 a.m. Feeding the multitude is on again from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., with a Pepsi collectibles auction at 11 a.m. and the big ticket items in the general auction around 2 p.m. and the remainders to be auctioned off around 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
For more information and everything you need to know about the sale, go to the Kansas Mennonite Relief Sale website.
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