Pre-Christmas Auction: Thank You, WEwomen!

Each year at the beginning of November, WEwomen holds its Pre-Christmas Auction. WEwomen is the women's group of the Whitestone and Ellisforde congregations, and it is a model of how two congregations can cooperate in a common mission.

The mission of WEwomen is to reach out to provide support to people in need in the church, in the community, and around the world. From funeral dinners to providing medical assistance in Africa, these women change lives. The auction is the primary means of raising funds for their work. So throughout the year they are quilting, crocheting, embroidering, making crafts and jewelry, and preserving fruit. In the final week before the event they are baking pies and breads and making granola and candies. And when we arrive it's all laid out before us.

Ben Hylton is the auctioneer, and Sally Hylton keeps him on track as he works his way through the many items. Betty Holmes welcomes the crowd and reports on how the WEwomen funds have been used over the past year.

And then it begins. Ben has many assistants to help him display the various items. The bidding gets lively and there is much laughter along with the serious business of planning your strategy for getting the items you want, or bidding up your neighbor or relative. It's a lot of fun.

Over in the corner are the women who keep track of who buys what, and who happily receive the checks and cash when the items are all sold.

Waiting over on the counter is an amazing variety of pies.

And when the bidding is over it's time to get the ice cream out of the freezer and have a piece--or two--and talk over the events of the evening, and catch up on how the neighbors are doing.

When all is said and done, all the hard work and dedication has been transformed into money that will continue to support the work and mission of WEwomen. Last year WEwomen donated to the Nursing Home for Christmas gifts, supported an RN on a medical mission to Africa, helped Mission Aviation continue their work in providing medical assistance to Africa, gave to the local Food Bank, provided funeral dinners, and made contributions to a variety of persons in the community for everything from shoes to gas money for medical emergencies.

The auction this year raised almost $2,000. Maybe your life will be touched by that money in the coming year as the women put it to work in continuing the work of Jesus. Thank you, WEwomen, for all you do!