Mennonite Relief Sale has full slate of vehicles up for auction

There are years when Jerry Toews frets that he may have finally exhausted the supply of interesting old cars, tractors and trucks that people are willing to donate to the Kansas Mennonite Relief Sale.

This isn’t one of those years.

“We’ve never had anything like this,” Toews said, conducting his annual pre-auction tour of vehicles located around his property on the east edge of Goessel.

People just keep coming up with vehicles that they no longer have a use for and figure it makes more sense to donate them to the cause of relieving poverty and suffering around the world than letting them collect dust in a shed.

This is the 49th annual Kansas Mennonite Relief Sale, which will take place April 7-8 at the Kansas State Fairgrounds in Hutchinson. The sale also features the auction of approximately 200 handmade quilts; a kids auction, where only youngsters can bid, handcrafted furniture; tools and antiques of all kinds; as well as a silent auction featuring everything from jewelry and laser-engraved collectibles to golf packages.

But the big bids will be coming fast and furious when the vehicles cross the block. And the star of the Saturday afternoon general auction should be the 1928 Chevrolet coupe that Toews got up and running for the sale. It will be the second time around for this car.

“It has 43,000 miles on it, no rust. It was sold at a Mennonite Relief sale in California about 20 years ago. Then it spent about 10 years out there before it came here, through relatives,” Toews said.

“Joyce Barkman of Hillsboro donated it. It was just sitting in her garage and she decided to donate it. It had a few issues, be we got ’er going.”

The car was earlier restored to original condition, with a repaint of its dark green body and black fenders, set off by big, light-green disc wheels. The interior, with its big wood-rimmed steering wheel and horizontal rolling speedometer, is immaculate.

There are plenty of interesting old tractors to choose from, including a rare 1941 DV Case, one of only about 100 manufactured that year. The tractor is built on a special narrow frame to allow it to negotiate the narrow rows between vineyard crops.

Unusual tractors such as a restored 1954 John Deere 40, a 1951 Massey Harris Pony and a steel-wheeled 1937 WC Allis Chalmers will also go to the highest bidders.

There’s a 2001 Mercedes sedan, a super-well maintained 2002 Honda and a low-mileage 4WD Chevy Trailblazer on the sale bill, as well as a barely-used 2004 Starcraft pop-up camper and a 1962 Ford F-600 grain truck.

Plus, there are all kinds of German, Russian and Swiss Mennonite food available to make day-long shopping at vendor booths and the various auctions that much more enjoyable.

For more information, go to kansas.mccsale.org or look for Kansas Mennonite Relief Sale on Facebook.

This story was originally published March 29, 2017 at 12:03 PM with the headline "Mennonite Relief Sale has full slate of vehicles up for auction."