Hours
Generally 9:00 am - 4:00 pm Monday to Friday. An appointment in advance is recommended.
Contact
Mennonite Archives of OntarioConrad Grebel University College
140 Westmount Road North
Waterloo, ON N2L 3G6
Phone: 519-885-0220 x24238
Title: Ontario Mennonite Relief Sale series
Dates of creation: 1966-2017
Note: Further accruals are expected
Physical description: 1.17 m of textual records
Administrative history: The first publicized Mennonite relief sale was held in Pennsylvania in 1957. The first sale in Canada was held in May 1967 on the fairgrounds at New Hamburg, Ontario. This sale has been held on the last weekend in May ever since. The goal is to raise funds for the work of Mennonite Central Committee in Ontario and around the world.
The centrepiece of the sale has always been the auction of quilts made primarily by Ontario Mennonite women. The sale of food, much of it traditional Mennonite fare, has always accompanied the event. Over the years other fundraising activities have been added such as the auction of non-quilt items, the Self Help Crafts (Ten Thousand Villages) tent, the MCC thrift shop tent, the plant sale, the Penny Power booth, etc. A promotional dinner is held each year to defray the costs of the sale. In 1982 the Heifer Sale was added as a separate event; heifers and other donated items are auctioned in support of MCC at this springtime event first held near Guelph, and later near Listowel, Ontario.
The Ontario Mennonite Relief Sale (OMRS) was incorporated in 1970. The OMRS board continued to organize the New Hamburg sale directly until 2005. At this point, the board was recomposed to consist of the executive committees of the New Hamburg sale and the Heifer Sale. A new committee, the New Hamburg Mennonite Relief Sale Committee, was formed to organize that sale. The Heifer Sale committee remained unchanged.
Custodial history: This series is part of a transfer of records from Mennonite Central Committee Ontario in the early 1980s, a donation of files from J. Winfield Fretz (date unknown), a donation of posters in 2009, a donation of records from the Relief Sale committee in 2017, and a donation from John Reimer in 2023.
Scope and content: Contains correspondence, publicity materials, some financial records, photographs, ephemera, lists of volunteers and sponsors, reports and minutes of the Ontario Mennonite relief sales. The records demonstrate the significant effort on behalf of many volunteers and staff of various organizations to make the sale possible. They also document shifts over the years in terms of marketing, promotion, programing, and regulation.
Notes: Relief Sale posters are located in the map case, under XIV-3.2.
Photographs related to the Relief Sale can be located through the Mennonite Archival Image Database.
Although it has long been separately incorporated, the Relief Sale remains a series of the Mennonite Central Committee Ontario fonds where it was originally arranged and described.
Archival description created by Laureen Harder-Gissing in 2017.
File list:
Box 1. Correspondence, etc. 1967-1973
Correspondence etc., 1967-1973
Box. 2. Misc. 1966-1972
Box 3. Publicity Chairman's Materials (J. Winfield Fretz), 1966-1970
Box 4. Correspondence, Publicity, etc., 1967-
Box 5. Misc. Publicity, etc., 1977-
Miscellaneous Publicity, Minutes, etc., 1977, 1978
Note: Relief Sale oversize posters are located in map case: [19--] (placemat), 1991 (quilt exhibition), 2001, 2006, 2009 (fundraising concert) 2011, 2012. 2019.
Brochures from other Mennonite relief sales
Box 6. Heifer Sale
Box 7. Programs
1979-1980, 1982-2019, 2022
Box 8.
Box 9.
Generally 9:00 am - 4:00 pm Monday to Friday. An appointment in advance is recommended.
Phone: 519-885-0220 x24238
Conrad Grebel University College
140 Westmount Road North
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G6
519-885-0220
All information on this website is copyright by the Mennonite Archives of Ontario, Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Permission is granted to include URL references to this information for noncommercial purposes, provided that proper attribution is given.
Conrad Grebel University College is situated on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Read Grebel's full territorial acknowledgement.