? Two donated trucks have Hillsboro origins.
Good intentions don?t always pave the way to hell. Sometimes they lead to generous decisions.
That was the case this year for Clark and Anna Marie Wiebe of Hillsboro. The 1951 Ford pickup that Clark bought more than 10 years ago as a future restoration project is now heading for the auction block at the 47th Kansas Menno?nite Relief Sale in Hutchin?son this Friday and Satur?day.
Proceeds from its sale, like everything else sold at the annual event, will go to the worldwide ministry of Mennonite Central Com?mittee to fight hunger and provide relief.
The two-day sale usually raises about $500,000 over a 24-hour period. Everything raised on sale day goes to MCC.
?I hope it does well,? Wiebe said about the pick?up?s selling price. ?I bought the truck primarily as a project that I never got to. It has languished in the shed for a long time.
?We just decided because of our pending move and auction that we needed to find a new home for it, and we wanted the MCC sale to benefit from whatever funds it would generate.?
Wiebe said he never used the truck as part of his farming operation. In fact, he had to pull it home from Abilene after he bought it because it didn?t run almost the entire time the Wiebes owned it.
Then Jerry Toews of Goessel, who helps coordinate the general auction, got a hold of it.
?Jerry has just been a magician to get it to run,? Wiebe said. ?I never had time to mess with it for very long, so Jerry spent some time with it and worked his magic on it.?
Toews describes the pickup as having the ?right look and very original.?
?The engine starts easy and runs very smooth,? he said. ?This one is a fun one to drive.?
A second local truck
The Hillsboro area will be represented with a second truck at the auction. Herb and Pat Bartel, who live north of town, have donated their 1948 Ford F-4 truck. It has its original paint and 100 horsepower Mercury flathead V-8 engine.
All of its life, the truck has been a working vehicle for small farms, starting with Herb Funk of Hills?boro, according to the Bartels. Funk used the truck to haul wheat to Marion and Canada and cattle to their summer pastures.
The truck was auctioned at his farm sale in the early 1980s and purchased by Herb and Pat, who farmed seven miles away.
?We used the truck to haul wheat, for wheat-sowing and general hauling,? Herb Bartel said. ?It has never been driven where the roads have been salted. For about 35 years, it provided trouble-free service on the Bartel farm.?
Toews did a few repairs on this truck, too. He rebuilt the wheel cylinders and adjusted the brakes and clutch among other things.
?This truck is a relic of the days before agricultural consolidation and the era of farm semi-trucks?what a legacy,? Toews said.
Multiple auctions
The Mennonite Relief Sale actually offers several different auctions:
? The general auction in the Sunflower North building features the antique vehicles, but also has a grandfather clock, camper, antiques, tools and almost anything imaginable.
? The quilt auction in the Meadowlark building will feature about 250 Mennonite handmade quilts.
? The children?s auction, with a clown auctioneer, starts at 10 a.m. in the children?s building.
? The silent auction closes at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Sunflower South building.
? The surplus auction starts at 3 p.m., also in Sunflower South.
The Mennonite Relief Sale opens at 4 p.m. Friday; on Saturday, all auctions start at 8:45 a.m.
The 25,000 people in attendance will have multiple options for food service.
Famous for its Low German and Swiss Menno?nite cuisine, including around 24,000 verenike and 35,000 New Year?s Cookies (Low German) and 9,000 bohne beroggi (Swiss), attenders can choose from many other ethnic or traditional options.
For more information about the sale, go to kansas.mccsale.com.