DownloadNov. 24, 2008 issue
Traveling quilt raises money for houses in Bangladesh
By Arlene HoldemanBROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — A quilt featuring children’s pictures of houses has finished its tour of nine relief sales, raising most of $71,840 at those sales for Mennonite Central Committee to build new homes in Bangladesh.
A quilt with squares designed by Minnesota children that has traveled to nine relief sales to raise money to build houses in Bangladesh is auctioned at the Brooklyn Park, Minn., MCC relief sale. — Photo by Gary Hagen
The quilt traveled to nine sales in 2008 — with donors bidding for it without purchasing it — until Nov. 8, when it was sold at the Mennonite World Relief Sale in Brooklyn Park.
Colleen Graber led a project at the children’s activity center at the 2007 Minnesota MCC relief sale for children to draw and color houses on squares of fabric. Karen Hauff then incorporated the children’s decorated blocks into a large quilt, which Jane Paulsen machine quilted.
When MCC personnel learned of the quilt, they requested that it be used at sales around the country to raise funds for houses for Bangladesh. When two sales were scheduled for the same time, local crafters made their own house block quilts to be auctioned.
After the Minnesota quilt’s tour around the United States, the parent of one of the children who drew a square with a picture of a house bought the quilt for $500 at the 2008 Minnesota sale, taking it home.
Since a simple house can be built for $400, the $71,840 from the quilt will provide 180 homes for victims of Cyclone Sidr last year. Canadian relief sales raised another $36,250 with their own traveling quilt, providing another 90 houses.
In addition to the sale of the traveling quilt, the Minnesota relief sale devoted a half hour of the auction to raising more funds for Bangladesh homes. The time opened with 12 children on stage huddled together in a plastic tent like the kind supplied by MCC for emergency shelter. They represented the plight of Bangladesh children whose homes were lost to Cyclone Sidr.
Bidding amounts were to be offered in units of $50, $100, $200 or $400. The plan was that every time a $400 total was reached, a child would exit the tent and stand facing the audience holding a picture of a house to represent another child in Bangladesh who could now move out of a tent into a house. However, when the bidding opened, the $400 bids flew almost too fast for the auctioneer and his spotters to respond. Within two minutes $4,800 had been raised, and all the children had tumbled out of the tent to stand in front holding up their house pictures.
Over the next half hour, seven more quilts, wall hangings and other decorative items, all with the theme of houses, were auctioned to raise a total of $6,860.
The crowd sang “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow.”
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