810-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 5,2001
Rembolds Prepare For MCC
GAY BROWNLEE
Somerset Co. Correspondent
SALISBURY (Somerset Co.)
Edgar Rembold says the red
elm spiral lamp he will donate on
July 20 and 21 to the Mennonite
Central Committees TriState Re
lief Sale at the Garrett County
Fairgrounds at McHenry, Md.,
was made with 90 percent hand
work. This was accomplished
using wood rasps.
Mennonite Central Committee
is the relief and development
arm of the North American Men
nonite and Brethren in Christ
churches. It is headquartered in
Akron. About 45 relief sales con
ducted annually in North Ameri
can locations, channel 88 cents
from every dollar to MCC. The
funds are used for food, health,
education, job creation, agricul
ture, disabilities and peace-relat
ed activities.
Rembold’s wife, Alice, enjoys
crocheting and keeping a portfo
lio of her husband’s wood crafts
since he retired 13 years ago
from the Harbison-Walker Re
fractories near Grantsville, Md.
Her contribution to the TriState
Relief Sale will be a delicate cro
cheted baby afghan that she
made.
“I had given up crocheting for
awhile. 1 lost interest, but then I
picked it up again over the win
ter,” she said. “I like to work
with baby yarn, its soft,” she
added.
By giving 40 years of service to
one employer, Rembold holds a
job record few people in today’s
mobile generation will ever
achieve.
‘I don’t miss the work,” he
said, “but 1 miss the fellows 1
.worked with.” So instead of
making fire brick these days, at
his leisure in the Savage Road
shop, he accepts custom orders
like the challenging armoire he is
working on at present.
“Anything you want, just give
me a bit of a picture of it,” he
said with confidence.
Holding up a hand that is
missing something at the finger
tips, Rembold grins. “On the 21st
of January I got too close to the
saw. I knew it was more than a
band aid would cover.” Alice
drove him to the local hospital
On the wood lathe is an unfinished spiral lamp Edgar
Rembold of Salisbury is making with a wooden rasp.
Ninety percent of the tedious work is done by hand.
Edgar Rembold exhibits two spiral lamps similar to the
one he is donating to the MCC TriState Relief Sale at
Garrett County Fairgrounds in Maryland on July 20, 21.
emergency room for treatment,
but in a matter of days he was
right back to work.
At the outset of taking an
order the one thing Rembold
makes clear to customers is he
won’t be coerced into setting
deadlines. Deadlines and retire
ment to his way of thinking are
incompatible soul mates. He
works for enjoyment and keeps
out the stress.
Ironically, the plant where he
once worked for still relies on
Rembold to build the charger
boards that are necessary to
move the clay in and out of the
press. Occasionally, these must
be replaced.
The spiral lamp pattern origi
nated in Germany, he said. Be
yond a natural bent for wood-
crafts, the necessary skills to
perfect a spiral piece were re
fined under an accomplished in
structor. That was Alices late fa
ther, a carpenter by trade and
the builder of the heavy spiral
floor lamp they having standing
in their livingroom.
Rembold also' builds spiral
floor candle holders that have a
3-inch cup.
The couple reported they ab
sorbed a lot about the MCC relief
sales when they decided to at
tend two that were held else
where. These were in Kidron,
Ohio and in Harrisburg.
“I helped to get the TriState
Sale off the ground,” the wood
crafter said with a twinkle in his
eye, “but, I said I wouldn’t carry
an office.”
He will act as a runner, how
ever, when things are hopping on
sale Saturday, just to help the
auctioneers.
Rembold devotes much of his
time to the very active Springs
Historical Society which operates
the Springs Farmers Market.
This entity gets underway on
Memorial Day weekend Satur
day at 8 a.m., and is open every
Saturday through September.
Additionally, the first Friday
and Saturday of every October,
the Springs Historical Society
holds the Springs Folk Festival
to preserve the early arts and
crafts of the Casselman Valley
settlers.
The 2001 TriState Relief Sale
amid the panoramic mountains
and lakes of western Pennsylva
nia, western Maryland, and West
Virginia is being held in the area
for the third time.
Tristate Relief Sale
Alice Rembold of Salisbury will donate this baby af
ghan to the MCC TriState Relief Sale. For effect in dis
playing it she brought out a few dolls from her own child
hood.
The two-day extravaganza will MCC’s Brenda Wagner recently
feature all new items in a Friday expressed an opinion that the
evening silent auction, Saturday TriState Relief Sale’s advantage
main auction, children’s auction, is that of being held in a location
and the market place. thriving with tourism.
A puppet show is planned for Her message told how Wag-
The spiral lamp pattern originated in Ger
many. Beyond a natural bent for woodcrafts,
the necessary skills to perfect a spiral piece
were refined under an accomplished instruc
tor, Alice’s late father.
Friday evening and dinner will
be available.
There will be numerous quilts,
wall hangings, art work, hand
crafted furniture and chests,
rugs, first quality glass by Simon
Pearce; P. Buckley Moss prints
and pottery, vacation and week
end packages for The Wisp, the
Inn at Georgian Place, and Lau
relville Mennonite Church Cen
ter.
Food attractions are Saturday
pancake and sausage breakfast,
followed by chicken barbecue at
lunch, homemade ice cream,
half-moon pies, apple dumplings
and various specialties. The
youngsters will tally coins for
MCC from combined Penny
Power projects that were held in
churches, pack school kits and*
health kits, and participate in ac
tivities similar to those done by
children in countries MCC
serves.
At the Springs Mennonite
Church, (Somerset County)
<. c
ner’s MCC experience with a
woman in a country of another
culture, brought new meaning to
the biblical account of the
woman who touched the hem of
Jesus’ garment and what his re
sponse to her was.
Garrett County Fairgrounds
are very near the rippling waters
of Deep Creek Lake, a popular
four-season resort area that at
tracts city dwellers from Pitts
burgh, Washington, D.C. and
Baltimore. The site is on Route
219 South in McHenry, Mary
land, 13 miles south of Interstate
68 Exit 14A, 28 miles west of
Cumberland, Maryland. Admis
sion and parking to the sale are
free.
Campsites on the grounds are
also available. For information
including a listing of accommo
dations call (814) 445-6945. Or
write to TriState Relief Sale, P.O.
Box 824, Grantsville, Md. 21536,
or E-mail: soridge@wpia.net.
•' ! '‘f’4s *!