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AURORA < After 28 years, the basics of the Nebraska Mennonite Central Committee Relief Sale are pretty well set: great food, old friends and lots and lots of quilts.
But that doesn't mean there are no variables. Organizers don't know what many of the auctioned items will be until they arrive in Aurora, said Dawn Gall of Howells, the event's publicity chairwoman.
"Friday is always kind of a fun day because there's a lot of surprise," Gall said.
About 150 quilts, comforters and afghans plus artwork, toys and handcrafted wood items will be auctioned off during the two-day event, which begins today at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds in Aurora.
The event has raised more than $3.5 million since its inception, including a record $160,000 last year.
The money is given to the Mennonite Central Committee, which works to provide food, education and social services to poorer areas of the world.
Many of the quilts are made by women in Mennonite churches across Nebraska, often as part of monthly or weekly quilting clubs, Gall said.
Some of the more elaborate hand-quilted pieces can fetch as much as $1,000 to $1,500 at auctions. Hand-quilting is a tradition that has becoming endangered as mothers' lives get busier, Gall said, but it's valued at the relief sale.
"There's something about the hand-quilting that really fills a niche," she said.
Two special auction items at this year's event are a Hustler mower, which will be auctioned off Saturday afternoon but will be available for test rides beforehand, and two tickets for a NASCAR event in September in Kansas City, Kan.
Another major draw is the food both the Friday night soup supper and the baked food, dinners and German dishes on Saturday.
And of course, there's the quilts, which always draw hundreds of amazed onlookers curious about the often-painstaking technique.
"It's just a wonderful thing to be able to see the handiwork of so many people," Gall said.
If you go
Nebraska Mennonite Relief Sale
Where: Hamilton County Fairgrounds, Aurora
Schedule: Friday
4-7:30 p.m. - Soup supper
7 p.m. - Auction
Saturday
6:30-9 a.m. - Breakfast
8 a.m. - Craft auction
9 a.m. - Quilt auction
10:30 a.m. - Art auction
11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Lunch (Verenika and Windsor loin)
11 a.m. - Children's auction
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