A featured quilt at the New Hamburg Mennonite Relief Sale in Ontario raised more than $20,000 for Mennonite Central Committee in late May and will make its home at Conrad Grebel University College.

Grebel director of finance Sara Cressman made the quilt, which features a leafless tree on a stained-glass inspired backdrop, symbolizing life’s grief and joy, beginnings and endings.

The bidding came down to two parties: Sara’s mother Susan Cressman and Grebel alumna Lisa Shantz.

Shantz pulled together a consortium of bidders and entertained the crowd with communication across the arena and last-minute increment increases. Cressman went home with the quilt, but the quilt’s story does not end there.

Cressman donated the quilt to Gre­bel, where it will hang in the atrium and remind students of each day’s possibilities and the closing of a chapter.

Building on the enthusiasm of her original bidding consortium, Shantz convinced the group of Grebelites to honor their pledges and match the quilt price. To add to the generosity, another matching group was present: Brubacher siblings who had committed to match the quilt’s final bid in memory of their parents, quiltmaker Selina Brubacher and avid relief sale volunteer Toby Brubacher.

“Donating the quilt to Grebel was an easy decision,” Susan Cressman said. “The quilt has themes of grief and joy, and with the recent deaths of Sara’s grandma, father and aunt, I felt it would be meaningful to donate the quilt in their memory where others could enjoy it as well.”

Grebel President Marcus Shantz noted Sara Cressman has donated quilts to the relief sale for many years.

“It’s wonderful that her family, friends and Grebel co-workers took this opportunity to show appreciation for her work,” he said.