MCC Manitoba thrift stores receive award for contribution of volunteers

Mennonite Central Committee
Thursday, 7 June 2001

WINNIPEG, Man.-- The Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC) has honoured Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Manitoba thrift stores for the work of their 2,500 volunteers.

Martha Klassen, former thrift store co-ordinator for MCC Manitoba, accepted the 2001 CCIC International Co-operation Award for Contribution of Volunteers at a ceremony in Ottawa, May 25, 2001.

"It is a humbling experience for me to receive this award on behalf of the 2,500 volunteers who work in the 17 MCC Manitoba thrift stores," Klassen said, upon receiving the award. "I have worked with many of them and know they volunteer with no expectation of reward. Their sense of compassion for suffering people is their motivation."

CCIC is a coalition of more than 100 Canadian organizations working on the front lines of social justice, humanitarian aid, economic and democratic development in the world.

In nominating the thrift stores for the annual award, Jennifer deGroot of the Manitoba Council for International Co-operation, wrote: "MCC thrift store volunteers have demonstrated the power of grassroots commitment in confronting poverty and injustice, in Manitoba and beyond.

"Button by button, shirt by skirt, the work of MCC thrift store volunteers serves to alleviate poverty around the world," she continued.

In 1972 four women approached MCC about starting a thrift store in Altona to sell used items and generate funds for MCC's work in Canada and around the world. Three other thrift stores opened later that year in Manitoba.

Today, the 17 stores in Manitoba raise approximately $1.5 million each year for MCC. The movement has also spread to other provinces and the U.S. Currently, there are 54 MCC thrift stores in Canada and 47 in the U.S.

Klassen pointed out that volunteers go beyond raising funds. They excel in recycling, such as making blankets out of clothes that don't sell in the stores. They promote minimizing waste and model responsible stewardship.

"For me, a definition of a volunteer is someone who goes to the trouble of cutting up clothes and sewing the pieces together to make a blanket for someone they do not know and will never meet, expecting no reward and no recognition, but knowing they can make a difference in someone's life," said Klassen.

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org