Mennonite Relief Sale began in Hillsboro
The Kansas Mennonite Relief Sale is in its 36th year, and it all started in Hillsboro. The first Kansas Mennonite Relief Sale and Auction was May 17, 1969, at the Marion County Fairgrounds in Hillsboro.
According to Raymond Wiebe in his book, "Hillsboro, The City on the Prairie', "Hillsboro's tradition of generosity gave rise to the first sale in Kansas on behalf of the MCC."
More than 4,000 people attended the first sale, and there was a mass men's chorus concert for a finale at Tabor College Auditorium. Approximately $18,000 was raised, and Richard Blosser, associate editor of the "Mennonite Weekly Review," wrote in the May 22, 1969, issue that the sale "brought a generous outpouring of funds and labor on behalf of hungry people around the world."
The women's quilting group at Parkview Mennonite Church has been working on quilts for the MRS as long as they can remember. Hulda Loewen said that the only sale she didn't think the group had made a quilt for was the first one, here in Hillsboro.
"I was too busy cooking sausage that year," she said.
Quilts, artwork, wood crafts, homemade foods, antiques and crafts are among the items auctioned at the sale. This year's sale also features a 1924 Model TT Ford, a 1946 B Alllis-Chalmer tractor, 40 Barbie Dolls in the original packaging, a 1979 Copper Alloy Bell, as well as more than 250 handmade quilts and quilt-related items.
A quilt being donated by the Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Church quilt group was in the church at the time of the fire. Although it received some minor smoke damage and has water spotting, the quilt survived to be donated to the sale.
According to the Mennonite Brethren Foundation, over the past 35 years more than $11 million has been raised to relieve suffering around the world. Funds raised from the sale are distributed through the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). MCC workers serve in poverty relief programs in more than 50 countries.
