“Overall, it was a beautiful day with lots of people attending. I love seeing everyone working together, enjoying each other’s company and generously donating,” quoted Dave Rush, Board Chair for the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale.
This year marked the 59th year the sale has been running, and was enthusiastically deemed a success in the preliminary results released by the board. Attendees raised an estimated $432,000 for Mennonite Central Committee’s global relief efforts, the second highest amount in the last four years. EMU Junior Fortie Chipeta was heavily involved behind the scenes through her connections with Y-Serve on campus, and with Zion Mennonite Church.
“I’m one of the leaders for Y-Serve, and they’ve been handing out a lot of volunteer work,” mentioned Chipeta. “I had gone to the relief sale once in high school to help out, but I never really volunteered and I said… ‘let me just go to the Relief Sale and see what it’s about and maybe volunteer.’” According to her calculations, she volunteered for a total of nine hours purely on Saturday. She divided this time between working with the famous donut operation throughout the early hours of the morning, helping coordinate children’s activities, and later event cleanup in the afternoon.
“If people do help out, I would probably say go for the later hours… finding the balance to help the Relief Sale or going to [other events] can be a challenge,” Chipeta expressed.
Many EMU community members have frequented the sale for years, including University Chaplain, Brian Martin Burkholder. He has been attending the event for over 20 years with his family, and says that this weekend of festivities is one thing that has stayed very consistent over the years.
“Even though the auction of quilts and other items gets the heavy press, I mostly enjoy the community gathered around good food in an outdoor setting. It helps that the weather is often quite nice in early October,” reflected Burkholder. A number of EMU students also appreciated the available food options, ranging from classic Mennonite baked goods to traditional Central American cuisine.
“These pupusas are pretty great,” said sophomore Noah Yoder. “I waited for about 40 minutes but it was worth it.” Yoder, along with fellow sophomores Mac Rhodes-Lehman and Milo Hertzler, were all outside the 4H pavilion waiting for their orders of pupusas. They joined the large multitude of people that enjoyed this Salvadoran national dish throughout the weekend.
“I’m having a great time, [but] I wish it was about 20 degrees cooler,” mentioned Rhodes-Lehman. “[There are] no clouds in the sky, one might call it an unclouded day,” he added.
“I’ve been showing up [to the Relief Sale] for as long as I can remember,” shared Hertzler. Over the years, his favorite aspect of the weekend has shifted. According to Hertzler, it “used to be the 5k, but now it’s just walking around and seeing people that I know.” In conjunction with the many food stands around the venue, event-goers also had opportunities to participate in the 5 kilometer race Saturday morning, experience a natural disaster simulator sponsored by the Mennonite Disaster Service, and make purchases in both the live and silent auctions, among other things. Notably during the auctions, five items sold for $2,000 or greater, and 22 items sold for $1,000 or more. The Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale is looking to cross the $500,000 mark by the end of 2025, and an upcoming opportunity to continue donating will be on Dec. 12 at Park View Mennonite Church, where the Harrisonburg based Walking Roots Band will be hosting a benefit Christmas concert.
Concluding his reflections, Burkholder said, “I value seeing the gathering of various Anabaptist and Mennonite groups pulling together to contribute toward meeting relief needs around the world. It’s about faith and love in action both for this immediate community and for global communities.”
