Auctioneer H.L. Wenger of Harrisonburg calls for bids on Brownie and Gladys Driver’s Log Cabin Cross quilted wall hanging, a duplicate of one the sisters made earlier that was given to Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Photo by Jim Bishop

A 21″ by 31″ quilted wall hanging, “Log Cabin Cross,” the sisters made this summer to donate to the relief sale instead was purchased by EMU as a gift to Rev. Desmond Tutu. The Anglican Archbishop was in Harrisonburg on Sept. 21 – the International Day of Peace – to receive an award from the Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence at James Madison University in recognition of his peacemaking work in his native South Africa.

EMU President Loren Swartzendruber and other EMU officials participated in a tree-planting ceremony at the Gandhi Center earlier that day and gave the Nobel Laureate the Drivers’ handmade wall hanging.

The $500 EMU paid for the piece was donated to , the worldwide relief and service agency based in Akron, Pa.

Back to Work

In a two-week period immediately following, the Driver sisters fashioned a second identical Log Cabin Cross wall hanging that went for $525 during Saturday’s auction.

The Driver sisters, residents of Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, have created paintings, quilts, comforters and wall hangings to donate to the sale every year since the event began in 1967. “It’s something we can do,” Gladys Driver said. “We’d feel like something was missing if we didn’t participate in this way.”

This year’s sale raised $310,000 in gross receipts for Mennonite Central Committee, nearly identical to last year’s sale.

‘Penny Power’ Project

These funds include approximately $21,835 for the “Penny Power” project, initiated in 2001, in which area congregations and other groups collect coins and currency in large water jugs for weeks or months and bring their containers to the sale for sorting and tabulating.

The “Penny Power” funds will be divided equally between MCC and . MCC’s portion will be used to minister to AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in 11 countries. VMBM will use its portion to support the ministry of Micah, Adam and Isaiah Riddle, children of missionaries Chris and Melody Riddle in Italy.

An auction of handmade quilts, wall hangings, knotted comforters and afghans, artwork and wooden handcrafted items accounted for $120,000 of the total funds raised.

$1,000 or More

Around 19 items went for $1,000 or more.

A wall hanging designed and pieced by Carmen Wyse of Community Mennonite Church and quilted by Grace Mumaw of Lindale Mennonite Church that was made from feed sacks of the 1930s and 1940s went for $6,100.

A 13th edition of the “Harmonia Sacra” songbook created by Joseph Funk and published in 1869 went for $1,200.

There’s no glazed expression for first-year EMU student Ingrid Johnson, one of many volunteers in the homemade donut operation. The process started at midnight, and persons worked three-hour shifts in making 15,000 of the confectionery delights. Photo by Jim Bishop

Again this year the venue included such popular food items as 15,000 homemade glazed donuts, 150 gallons of Brunswick stew made on the premises by members of Springdale and Mt. View Mennonite churches in Augusta County, 3,000 barbecued chicken halves, homemade potato chips and apple butter and cider.

Live Radio Broadcast

The sale opened with a Friday afternoon two-hour live radio broadcast called “Down Home Shenandoah” on radio station WSIG, 96.9 FM. Using music and storytelling, the program sought to interpret the history and culture of the various Mennonite groups in the central Valley area. The broadcast ended with the audience joining in singing “606” (now #118 in the Brethren-Mennonite hymnal), “Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow.”

“This was an experiment of sorts, an attempt to bring back ‘old-time radio’ that you seldom hear anymore while trying to relate some of the area Mennonites’ church’s distinctives and traditions,” said Hal Dubois, co-host of the show.

“The sale auction seemed a bit different this year in that there weren’t a lot of ‘big ticket’ items, said Marvin Nisly, relief sale chair. “No quilt went for more than $4,000, yet at the same time the auction generated almost the same amount as last year.

Nisly thought the unseasonably warm weather helped draw “a larger than usual crowd,” adding: “I’m always amazed at the way everything comes together [at the sale] and the amount of good will that is generated as people support this relief effort.”

The Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale is held annually on the first Saturday in October. It began on the Wenger farm near Waynesboro and expanded to Augusta Expoland in 1974. The sale moved to the Rockingham County Fairgrounds in 1999.

Rev. Tutu receives a quilted wall hanging from EMU President Loren Swartzendruber that was created by sisters Brownie(l.) and Gladys Driver (r.) of Harrisonburg. Photos by Jim Bishop

At a mid-morning tree-planting ceremony at James Madison University, EMU President Loren Swartzendruber thanked JMU’s Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence for including EMU in welcoming Tutu, who is renowned for championing human rights and global peacemaking.

In brief remarks to Tutu and some 75 others present for the ceremony, Dr. Swartzendruber praised Tutu’s commitment to the cause of peace and reconciliation. “EMU, in the Christian peace church tradition, is also committed to this cause, believing that Jesus taught us to love our enemies and to find peaceful solutions to conflict,” said Swartzendruber.

The Gandhi Center was established in 2005 under JMU Professor Sushil Mittal “to promote a culture of nonviolence and peace worldwide based on universal values of justice, equality, freedom,” according to the center’s web site ().

The Gandhi Center selected Tutu to be the first recipient of its annual Mahatma Gandhi Global Nonviolence Award and chose to present the award on the International Day of Peace, Sept. 21.

‘Message of Peace and Non-Violence’

“We are proud to join with the Gandhi Center in promoting a message of peace and non-violence,” said Swartzendruber. “Thirteen years ago, EMU established what is now known as the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding with an annual Summer Peacebuilding Institute. From three students in two countries – the U.S. and Burma in 1994-95 – our Center has grown to have more than 3,000 alumni living and working for peace in more than 103 countries, including 10 peacebuilder graduates in South Africa.”

Loren Swartzendruber presents Rev. Desmond Tutu with a CD-ROM of greetings from EMU students who are studying in South Africa the fall semester.

Swartzendruber presented Archbishop Tutu with a CD of recorded greetings from 24 EMU students and two faculty members who are spending the fall semester in a cross-cultural seminar in South Africa. He also gave the archbishop copies of “Peacebuilder,” the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding’s semi-annual magazine, and books from the “Little Books on Justice and Peacebuilding” series.

“As a symbol of Mennonite’s strong belief in community,” Swartzendruber presented Tutu with a quilted wall hanging made by sisters Brownie and Gladys Driver, residents of the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community and members of Weavers Mennonite Church.

The Archbishop told sisters Brownie and Gladys Driver, “I’ll hang [the piece] in my office so I can look at it and think of you when I am working.”

The tree planting celebrated the establishment of the Gandhi Center. The Anglican archbishop congratulated JMU on “establishing a center that seems a vibrant, lively institution” dedicated to the promotion of peacemaking and nonviolence.

Tutu Speaks on ‘Power of Goodness’

The evening of Sept. 21, Rev. Tutu spoke on “The Power of Goodness” at JMU’s Convocation Center with thousands of people attending, including many students, faculty and staff from EMU.

Tutu’s remarks displayed his warmth, humility and disarming sense of humor, as this anecdote shows. While attending a ceremony for a 400-year-old school that was named in his honor in England, “a student came up afterwards and asked me if I was there when the school began.” Tutu chuckled at the recollection, then added this punchline: “A few years later, they changed the name.”

“I hold young people in the highest regard,” Tutu declared. “Many of them have an incredible passion for making this a more caring and sharing world through a most wonderful collaboration with God.”

EMU Well-Represented

Swartzendruber with his wife, Pat, sat at Tutu’s table at the banquet that preceded the convocation program. Present at other tables were executive director Lynn Roth and professor Lisa Schirch of EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, among other EMU officials.

The Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir, associated with EMU’s music department, treated the thousands in the crowd to a South African medley, “Freedom is Coming/Siyahamba” and “Abide With Me,” arranged by Celah Pence, an EMU alumna.

Dr. Myron S. Augsburger, EMU president emeritus and member of the board of trustees of the Gandhi Center, and alumnus Ron Yoder offered a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing on Archbishop Tutu at the close of the award ceremony. Yoder, the chief executive officer of Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, is also a member of the Gandhi board of trustees.

Eunice S. Wenger grew up in a culture of needlework and quiltmaking, and that "hands-on" experience is woven through her art work that goes on display Sunday, Feb. 6.

Ms. Wenger’s mixed-media exhibit, "Quilts to Paper Collage," will open with a reception for the artist 2:30-4 p.m. that day in the .

Her retrospective exhibit will feature some 45 works spanning an 18-year career as a fiber artist.

"I am a conceptual artist," Wenger said. "Many of my designs grow out of observations from nature and travel. Some pieces are completely hand-sewn, other are machine-stitched."

The artist attended EMU two years and completed an undergraduate degree from California State University in Los Angeles. She earned an M.A. in fiber art from James Madison University in 1998.

She works in a paper and silk studio in her Bridgewater, Va., home overlooking the North River.

The exhibit will be open daily during regular library hours through Mar. 4. Admission to the gallery is free.

Hartzler Library gallery hours:
Mon.-Thur. 7:45 a.m.-11 p.m.
Fri. 7:45 a.m.-6 p.m.
Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sun. 2 p.m.-11 p.m.