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Dessert Auction results sweet for Guatemala Mission Trip

The dessert auction at Stettler Alliance Church on Saturday evening, March 4 brought in around $8,000 for the Guatemala Mission Trip.
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A homemade trifle was one of the first desserts to be auctioned

The dessert auction at Stettler Alliance Church on Saturday evening, March 4 brought in around $8,000 for the Guatemala Mission Trip as Stettler and area community members turned up to show their support.

“In previous years an evening like this raised around $2,000,” Amore DuToit, one of the main organizers for the event said. “In 2015 the dessert auction had raised $4,000, and although there were concerns that the economic downturn will negatively affect the outcome, it didn’t. God answered the team’s prayers through the generous Stettler community.”

A cheesecake baked by one of Wm. E. Hay’s “very talented and kind-hearted” student Rebecca Rahn auctioned for $500 with Melissa Smith’s amazing cake creations fetching very high price as well at the auction.

“Hamburger patties were donated to the Fellowship of Christian Students (FCS) by Wm. E. Hay Students’ Union, for which we are thankful and Brenda from Brenda’s Cafe donated her food wisdom to Pam Brown, Danea Whitford and Tracy St. Dennis as they brainstormed how to turn 250 donated hamburger patties into meat sauce,” DuToit added. “There was so much spaghetti left over that we were able to donate packaged meals back to the community, this part felt really good to give right back to our generous community.”

Chaperoned by adult leaders DuToit and Rhonda Missikewitz, along with teen leader, Paul DuToit, a team of 30 people will be heading to Guatemala City in Guatemala from July 15-22. Included in the group are four youth chaperones who are all alumni from Wm. E. Hay.

The group will be working on various projects there, which will include a private orphanage as well as improving the state orphanage.

“We plan to help with a school building project just like we did in 2015,” DuToit explained. “We also plan to take water filters, pillas, shoes, school supplies, hygiene items and funds to buy food for the soup kitchen at the dump community in Guatemala City.”

DuToit and her team has been happy with how the fundraising has been going.

“We would like to thank all businesses who donated time, silent auction items and funds to this project,” DuToit said. “We are also thankful for the opportunity to shovel some businesses’ sidewalks as well as pick up recycling on a bi-weekly basis, for people dropping off recycling at school or phoning us to pick up recycling and ato anyone who has volunteered and helped.”

According to DuToit, the fundraising mission has truly become a community project.

“It is a generous community who is willing to support teens in their efforts to develop good citizenship skills and to serve people, both here at home and in Guatemala,” DuToit stated. “We have raised $26,000 so far and need a total of $42,000 for the trip and these funds are essential for all the teens travelling with us, for their travel, food, accommodation and a mandatory donation per person that goes to the orphanage where they will work for the majority of the time.”

DuToit thanked the auctioneer for the evening, County Councillor James Nibourg who stood all through the evening using his auctioneering skills and finally getting “pied” by Chad Ponto.

To support this project, community members can make a donation to the FCS Guatemala account at the Credit Union in town or can contact Amore DuToit at 403-741-9517 or Rhonda Missikewitz at 403-742-7864.

Please visit https://foreverchangedinternational.org/ to learn more about Forever Changed International.