Thank you for joining us at the
54th MCC Festival for World Relief

Friends, 

I want to extend my deep thanks and congratulations for the extraordinary effort our MCC BC volunteers and employees put into making this year’s Festival for World Relief a success.  

I’m pleased to announce that we met our event fundraising goal of $1 million through the generosity of donors and the willingness of our community to donate and purchase relief sale items. The money earned and donated at MCC’s Festival will be spent by MCC on ensuring people who desperately need food get it – in some cases saving people from starvation. 

As you all know, producing the Festival is an enormous team effort – it takes an enormous team, and it takes an enormous effort. In our press materials about this event we referred to this as a “volunteer-powered” event, but even that doesn’t capture the spirit of what occurs each year. This was my first year involved in Festival, and as I looked around Tradex I felt immense wonder at the way that our community came together to welcome thousands of people, and to invite them into the life changing work of MCC.  

Some of you may be aware that organizing this event is the responsibility of a small team of MCC employees and volunteer coordinators. You may be one of them, or you may have been recruited by some of them. They give their time and energy before, during, and after the event to make sure people and plans are ready. When you see the coordinator for your area, you may want to express your appreciation for them. 

We tried a few new things this year at Festival – a new floor plan, new entertainers, new vendors and exhibitors. In some cases we did this in response to feedback from past events; in others we were responding to ideas from our team. As our community changes, a large community event like this needs to change as well, and I was pleased with the way in which these changes were embraced by people who have a deep and long-standing investment in this event. Thank you for your patience and your willingness to try new things with us. 

I would like to invite your feedback about the Festival this year. You’re welcome to complete this online form either using your name or anonymously to provide us with your thoughts: https://forms.office.com/r/qsrAt5hAXV 

Once again, on behalf of the MCC team, I want to thank you for generously donating your time, energy, talents, goods and funds to MCC BC’S Festival for World Relief. At MCC we talk about being the hands and feet of Christ – this past weekend you were those hands and those feet! 

Ed Brett