The Canadian Foodgrains Bank receives financial support through all kinds of fundraisers.
Some involve growing crops and selling the grain. Others involve fundraising dinners. And some, like the one organized by Renske Helmuth, involve displaying and selling unique hand-made quilts.
Helmuth is a prolific and award-winning quilter from Ontario. She has been quilting for 25 years and has amassed a huge collection of hand-made quilts.
“I have 125 quilts in the house,” said Helmuth, who grew up in Holland and later moved to Moorefield, Ont., where she and her family operated a chicken farm.
“The idea came up a few years ago to have an open house with the proceeds going to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank…. This year, we decided to go for it.”
Helmuth said she and her family are familiar with the valuable aid work that the CFB is doing overseas.
A few years back, the family took part in international learning tours to Kenya and Nepal, where the CFB was conducting development projects aimed at helping people and communities in need.
Observing CFB’s work first-hand reaffirmed Helmuth’s belief that it is a charity worthy of support.
“We’ve seen the work that the foodgrains bank is doing in those countries and the need that is there …,” she said.
This is not the first time that Helmuth’s quilts have been used to raise funds for charity.
They have also been featured in several Mennonite Relief Sales in Ontario.
One of the quilts she co-ordinated, called Kaleidoscope of Nations, sold for $44,000 in 2003. Another fetched $42,000 at a charity auction in 2015. A total of five quilts were offered for sale through Helmuth’s Sept. 9-10 exposition. Purchase prices were not disclosed.
People who attended the quilting exposition at Helmuth’s home were also encouraged to make a cash donation to the CFB.
Funds raised through the display and sale are being tallied in Winnipeg this week.
Helmuth declined to offer an estimate on how much money was raised but said it was a pleasure to display her work and raise funds for such a worthwhile cause.
“We had beautiful weather. We had a food truck with a big tent … and we had about 350-plus people go through the house,” she said with a laugh.
“It was a pleasure to do it. But the whole house is a mess.”
