Today's mosaics tell the story of how wonderful it is to live in a rural area where everyone knows everyone, supports and prays for each other and joyfully spend a Sunday afternoon in a hot and overcrowded gym. Some background info, Justin & Heidi live on a farm located about 1/2 way between 2 rural communities - one with a population of 900 and one with a population of 1,200. A large group of volunteers composed of friends, family and co-workers organized their fundraiser by soliciting donations, food and silent auction items for the benefit event that fed 1,400 people in a 3 hour time period yesterday. It was AMAZING!
Saturday am started with groups of volunteers bringing in the items for the auction and peeling and cutting potatoes for potato salad. My beautiful daughter, Jayme, bottom left and my son-in-law, Scott, and Jeff were not afraid to be the only men in the kitchen :)
Saturday afternoon brought many hands to set up tables and organize and set up the over 300 items for the auction.
The items for the auction ranged from power tools, quilts, gift certificates, handmade art, home canned jams, prints & toys. Those little hand carved work shoes were amazing, the detail work on a pair of 3" shoes shows a lot of talent. Also pictured is the Marsha's Garden tea party display which sold for $205, I hope I can make it worth that amount next summer.
One of my favorite items was this quilt made by Alexis' kindergarten class! She has an amazing teacher with many talents. This was generously bid up and given to Alexis as a gift.
My nephew, Kyle (Justin's brother) worked many hours creating a gorgeous dollhouse. A week before the benefit he slipped on the ice and severely broke his ankle. Supplied with a wheelchair and some good friends the finishing details were added in time for the benefit. Kyle had surgery on Friday and was discharged on Saturday in time to help his friends deliver the dollhouse. The details were amazing, look at the stone fireplace with flat screen tv, the detailed decking, built in grill, and a framed photo of Justin & Heidi's family in the lower bedroom. Kyle has built several of these over the years including one for Alexis so this one was generously bid on by anonymous donors to give back to Kyle's own daughters, Keena & Ketcie. Ketcie is pictured being held by Justin.
Sunday morning, workers started at 5 am making pulled pork from 5 hogs roasted overnight and later the other food was prepared and 1200 dessert bars were plated. We took some photos of Justin, Heidi, Benjamin & Alexis and with Justin's parents, brother & sister's families, said a group prayer and then opened the doors at 10:45 am.
It was so wonderful to see the huge turnout of people to be able to hear them say they were praying for the family and to thank them personally for the donations and gifts. To see how as soon as they ate, they got up to create space for those next in line and went through the auction tables and generously bid. One of the bigger surprises of the day was when two families donated a snowmobile to the family.
I personally want to thank all those that contacted me and donated to their fund, it is heartwarming to see the kindness of friends as well as the readers I do not know well. Justin and Heidi would like to thank all personally but since so much was given anonymously here is their note to all.
May all of you be blessed as we felt being part of this event.
This morning's steeple comes from Queen of Peace Catholic Church.
This weekend, we worshiped at this church with Jayme & Scott and I was not able to get a photo of the complete building from the sidewalk so I borrowed the above shot from the church's website. Reading the church history says that this current church was built in 1926 after two previous buildings were destroyed by fire. The first in 1908 after lightening struck the church spire and the second during the Cloquet fire of 1918. Wikipedia gives this information about the fire - The 1918 Cloquet fire was a massive fire in northern Minnesota in October, 1918 caused by sparks on the local railroads and dry conditions. The fire left much of western Carlton County devastated, mostly affecting Moose Lake, Cloquet, and Kettle River. Cloquet was hit the hardest by the fires. It was the worst natural disaster in Minnesota history in terms of the number of lives lost in a single day. In total, 453 lives were lost and 52,000 people were injured or displaced, 38 communities were destroyed, 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) were burned, and $73 million in property damage was suffered.
The church is as beautiful inside as it is outside with lots of marble and stone. The ceiling is painted in intricate designs of blue and gold.
We are spending a long weekend helping the kids remodel a bathroom - for more on that visit Jayme's blog.
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