Brethren Disaster Relief Auction gives half million dollars for Nigeria relief

Photo by Chris Luzynski

A quilt from the 2013 Brethren Disaster Relief Auction

After a special request for support of the Nigeria Crisis Response, the Brethren Disaster Relief Auction board has allocated $500,000 to the Church of the Brethren Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) which is administered by Brethren Disaster Ministries. This is the auction’s largest grant ever to the EDF and the disaster relief work of the Church of the Brethren.

The grant will support disaster response activities in the US and around the world, with the board’s action granting flexibility for part or all of the funds to support the Nigeria Crisis Response, as the rapidly changing situation in Nigeria requires.

The Brethren Disaster Relief Auction is a cooperative effort of the Atlantic Northeast and Southern Pennsylvania Districts of the Church of the Brethren, and this year held its 38th annual auction. Duane Ness chairs the auction board.

The board gave the unprecedented grant in light of the goal of Brethren Disaster Ministries to raise $2.8 million to facilitate a three-phase Crisis Response Plan, already being implemented in northern Nigeria, said a Facebook post from the auction board. “With more than 100,000 Nigerian Brethren now displaced and without basic human needs, the need is great,” the post said.

Since 1977, the Brethren Disaster Relief Auction has raised a total of more than $14 million for disaster relief. This year’s event, held as always on the fourth Saturday in September at the Lebanon (Pa.) Expo and Fairgrounds, raised about $423,000, according to an auction press release from David Farmer.

“Some items sold years ago were redonated and resold,” reported Farmer, “a quilt for $2,300 and a scale-size wooden farm wagon for $3,000.” Volunteers also gathered during the auction to assemble an impressive 12,000 disaster relief school kits in a little over two hours.

Roy Winter, associate executive director for Brethren Disaster Ministries, described the event as “an amazing tribute of love and compassion for those impacted by emergencies and disasters.” Brethren Disaster Ministries deeply appreciates all the volunteers who have a hand in this Brethren tradition “for the glory of God and our neighbor’s good.”

For more information about the Brethren Disaster Relief Auction go to www.brethrendisasterreliefauction.org. For more about the Nigeria crisis and the relief effort go to www.brethren.org/nigeriacrisis.

-- Jane Yount, coordinator of the Brethren Disaster Ministries office, contributed to this report.

Source: 12/22/2014 Newsline