Canadian Mennonite
Volume 9, No. 07
April 4, 2005
Buhrs honoured
Kitchener, Ont.
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Martin and Pauline Buhr received the Founding Fathers Humanitarian Award at a luncheon reception held by the Catholic Family Counselling Centre in Kitchener on March 3. The award recognizes humanitarian service to society through actions that have helped improve the welfare of humankind. Award winners exemplify the commitment to the welfare of individuals, children, families and society that distinguished the Catholic Family Counselling Centre’s founders—Father Thomas Brennan and Father Hubert Gehl.
Jim Hallman, the counselling centre’s president, said: “This award was almost tailor-made for Martin and Pauline.”
In 1961, Pauline became a volunteer with Mennonite Central Committee. She served at the National Institute of Health as well as with an integrated MCC volunteer group in Atlanta, Ga., working for a time with the late Martin Luther King Jr. at the headquarters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Married in 1964, the Buhrs continued together on a journey in the field of community development and social service. Martin, who learned the virtues of caring and generosity as a child from his parents, received an MSW from Wilfrid Laurier University and was employed by the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services before he became executive director of House of Friendship for the next 20 years.
During this time, Pauline served as secretary at Stirling Avenue Mennonite Church. She also served as secretary in the House of Friendship offices from 1988-1998.
In their retirement, the Buhrs participated in several short-term voluntary service assignments in Taiwan (where Martin had served in his youth), Georgia and New Hampshire.
In 2001, Martin joined an MCC Ontario working group exploring the need for affordable housing. Since then he has been president of MennoHomes Inc., a non-profit charitable organization providing housing to households of low and modest incomes. Pauline assists him in the running of the MennoHomes office.
In his tribute to the Buhrs, Rick Cober Bauman (representing MCC Ontario and MennoHomes) said, “Look at these two. Beneath the veneer of civilization, they are actually rule breakers!” One of the rules they broke, Bauman said, was: “‘To make things happen, you have to push people out of the way.’ Quite to the contrary, Martin and Pauline Buhr have drawn people in as they have done their work.”
In his response Martin said, “Pauline and I have worked and volunteered together for most of our married life, so thanks for making this a ‘couple’ event.” Paraphrasing a quote by the winning coach of this year’s Super Bowl, he encouraged those present, “May you continue to climb any mountain you encounter.”
Carman thrift shop refurbished
Carman, Man.
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More than $1 million has been raised by the Carman MCC Thrift Store in its 30 years of operation. “And that’s all by nickel and diming it,” said Caroline Elias, Carman store president. During this time, the small community has suffered some economic hard times, but the thrift shop has seen only steady growth. At the end of November, it moved into a new facility, which increased the store’s size by 2,000 square feet.
The expansion of the Carman store, part of a network of 108 shops across North America (58 of which are in Canada), presented a prime opportunity for implementing the new mission-based marketing plan that MCC hopes to introduce in all of its stores, explained Judy Dyck, Canadian coordinator for MCC Thrift Shops.
“Judy was thrilled with the store space and we were overwhelmed,” said Elias. “She encouraged us to spend; to do it right the first time. We probably wouldn’t have purchased brand new hardware. We would have just kept using what comes through the thrift store.”
For several volunteers, this was a difficult change, being accustomed to using only donated goods with all proceeds going directly to MCC, explained Elias as she offered tea from a salvaged kettle that took longer than the interview to heat up.
“Both Paul Friesen, MCC Manitoba Thrift Store coordinator, and Judy guaranteed us that if we changed the way the store operated, spent some money, and priced and carried out new merchandise every day, instead of once a week, our sales would increase,” said Elias. “This is proving to be true.”
Sales have increased steadily over the past four months since the changes were made—in stark contrast to the larger business community that, in the same time period, suffered a 20 percent loss in income, largely due to big box stores opening in a neighbouring community.
With 2,000 square feet of additional space the new store looks inviting. The store displays the new signage that is one component of the mission-based marketing plan for all MCC shops, explained Dyck. This sign package helps to communicate the mission of MCC to volunteers, customers and donors. “Customers are pleased to discover ‘where in the world their purchase makes a difference,’” she said. New shelving, tasteful displays and spacious areas all help to give the store a fresh, new image that keeps bringing customers back.
One area of the new store that volunteers are particularly proud of is the library. A large corner—complete with carpet, couch, rocking chair and lamps—invites customers to pull a book off the shelf or a magazine from the rack and take a break from their shopping. It’s a quiet comfortable oasis.
“We get a lot of compliments,” said Elias. “We hear, ‘We have never seen a second-hand store like this.’”
The average age of the volunteers is 65. Getting more and younger volunteers remains a challenge, as it does across the country, where the median age of the current volunteer force for all the shops is 69.
“Strategies for recruiting the next generation continue to be developed,” said Dyck.
In Carman, youth groups and women’s groups from some of the churches help with rag cutting. In this community of approximately 3,000, volunteers come from over 10 different denominations.
“The store is breaking down barriers between people,” said Elias.
With an aging volunteer base, some of the changes are difficult to adjust to, said Elias. “We have to run our thrift shop more like a business now, rather than as a church organization.”