Mennonite auction draws substantial crowd

RITZVILLE - The bidding was lively at the annual Menno Mennonite Country Auction Saturday.

Proceeds from the auction benefit the church's international relief and development program, the Mennonite Central Committee. It drew people from throughout the region, and volunteers from around the state.

"I've never been. And this was one of my bucket lists," Joy Erickson, of Spokane, said. Erickson is a quilter, and came to get ideas for color combinations and patterns, "but mostly colors. I love colors," she said.

Some of the quilts are purchased, others are donated and they come from near (Seattle) and far (Pennsylvania and Ontario, Canada). "This is special," Erickson said.

Will St. Jacques worked in Tri-Cities; his wife still does, but he retired and went home to Colorado to build his retirement house, he said. He came back for a weekend, and a return trip to the auction was on the list of activities."It's a really good event. Good food, good people and you never know what you'll come across," he said.

Sharon Allen, Tri-Cities, is a crocheter and knitter and came to get some ideas from the afghans on display, and to admire the quilts. "I appreciate beautiful handwork," she said.

"How about the food?" asked her husband Ed. Church volunteers served sausage dogs and taco bowls, hamburgers and homemade pie, made ice cream and doughnuts. One of the auction traditions is fresh-squeezed apple cider and apple butter made auction morning.

Volunteers came from sister Mennonite churches. The Burkholder family from Warden filled jars with hot apple butter, something they've been doing for years, Glenn Burkholder said.

Ellie Yoder and Bridget Lindquist, both of Seattle, are high school students who volunteered a Saturday to help out in - well, it's not Seattle. But for a weekend that's OK, the girls said. "It's like a tradition," Yoder said, and Lindquist said she has been volunteering for three or four years.

"It's just a lot of fun. A lot of fun stuff to see and do," Yoder said. They were working the pie booth, which is a lot less labor-intensive than making apple cider, Lindquist said.

Mennonite churches throughout the U.S. and Canada sponsor the benefit auctions with the proceeds going to the Mennonite Central Committee programs. The programs provide relief in cases of emergencies in developing countries, but they try and go beyond addressing the immediate emergency, Jerry Linschield, of Akron, Penn., said.

The second step is help people get what they need for more success in the long term, whether that's education or job creation or whatever it might be, he said. The third step is to look at the bigger picture, he said, and try to address issues that are contributing to instability.