16601: Raber: Amish helping Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: P&M Raber <raber@valkyrie.net>


This is an exerpt from "The Daily Record" published in Wooster Ohio Sunday
August 31, 2003.  If anyone on this list has ever thought of visiting Amish
country, come and  see the thousands of Amish and other conservatives in the
little crossroad of Mount Hope on Labor Day weekend for the Haiti Benefit
Auction.  Around 300 thousand dollars are raised each year.  Some Amish work
in the remote hills of Haiti teaching peasant practical farming techniques
and other things.


FROM HERE TO HAITI by Eric Johnson staff writer

Mount Hope-Early morning rain did not dampen the enthusiasm of volunteers
and bidders Saturday at the 17th annual Ohio Haiti Benefit Auction, whose
proceeds will continue to support Amish and Conservative Mennonite missions
offering hope and help to the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
    At 2 in the afternoon, it was still too early to assess how well the
bidding was going on furniture and quilts being sold in the open-air tent on
the grounds of Mount Hope Auction Inc, and on the tractors, buggies,
bicycles and other sale items being hammered down in the main sale barn,
which brought in more than $32,000 for six tractors and wowers sold
beginning at 1 p.m.
    But auction committee member Atlee Miller was enthusiastic as he talked
about the 17th annual event with a first time sale-goer.
"We had a juge crowd", he said for the Friday evening auction preview,
supper and a cappella "singspiration".  "The crowd last night was a little
more than last year."
    Dozens of congregations support the Ohio Haiti Benefit Auction, as well
as others like it in Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Florida, in an
effort to relieve human suffering and to provide for the spiritual needs of
the island nation's residents.
    Funds from these annual benefit auctions are spent to feed children, to
provide education and medical care and to drill wells for clean water and
for irrigation.
"This is a cooperative effort of many churches and individuals to bring
relief to the hungry, the sick, the naked and the homeless people of Haiti",
a brochure says in describing the history, purpose and commitment of the
Ohio Haiti Benefit Auction.  "Relief is given throughout the country of
Haiti without regard to race, religion, color or creed."
    All labor and auction items for the annual benefit fundraiser is
donated, according to the brochure. "Workers are expected to pay for their
meals.  No salaries and no commissions are paid.  All sale items go 100
percent to auction funds.
    "Many hands, talents and efforts make the auction run smoothly,
especially if it is done to glorify God", the brochure says.  "A network of
contributors, suppliers, helpers, bidders and buyers is needed to make the
auction a success."