The Emporia Gazette

February 13, 2012

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Members of Messiah Lutheran Church worked together to raise nearly $24,000 over the weekend.

The church’s annual Harvest Home Festival features homemade food, a flea market booth, canned goods and a benefit auction. The event Saturday earned $23,660.23 — the second-highest amount raised in its 12-year history, chairman Steve Hanschu said Sunday.

The event started in 1996, the same year the church broke ground on a new fellowship hall. In February 1997, just three months after the first benefit, the cornerstone was laid on the new addition. Once the building project was finished, sponsors said, the event became a way to share Christian love with each other and the community.

From its inception, a percentage of the festival’s proceeds has gone to a community organization. This year, Birthright of Emporia will receive some of the proceeds.

At the conclusion of a single worship service Sunday morning, Hanschu announced the results of the festival, an event that draws members of all ages. The total included $26.75 raised by teens making and selling bags of popcorn throughout the day. It also included a flea market booth filled with donated items sold for up to a few dollars each, homemade food sold in the concession stand and canned goods — a hallmark of the festival from the beginning.

Conceived by church member Orinne Schumann, preparing canned goods is a project that fills summer days, and one that has become a family affair, Schumann said Sunday morning.

“I hire my grandchildren to work every day,” she said.

In November 1999, Schumann had 2,400 jars of canned goods ready to sell at the auction, according to an article in The Gazette. Schumann specializes in pickled vegetables and relishes. Beth Hanschu and Ann Boles work to provide jellies and jams. Much of the produce, ingredients and jars are donated.

“We bought all the jars in Topeka, Wichita and Salina Big Lots,” Steve Hanschu said.

This year, the numbers had more than doubled from the 1999 figure. Schumann said she had at least one-half ton of sugar donated for the cause. In addition, she and her crew prepared 5,436 jars. The jellies and jams added another 1,000 jars.

This year, the canned goods brought in $8,781 of the total.

Still, the benefit auction contributes the most to the fundraiser. Each year, the auction includes items donated by church members and others as well as collectibles solicited from sports figures and teams around the country. Much of the furniture that is donated is refinished by Steve Hanschu and others to fetch top dollar.

And keeping with tradition, the church marked the conclusion of the festival by combining its three weekend worship services into one followed by a meal. The first year, the combined church service and meal was held Sunday morning in the Anderson Building, site of the festival each year.

This year, as in every year since 1997, members and friends came together at the church at 11th Avenue and Neosho Street, filling the fellowship hall with conversation, laughter and the smells of homecooked food brought to share.