As it winds down operations after 136 years, Mennonite Collegiate Institute is giving alumni and the public at large the opportunity to own a piece of its history.
The Gretna private school is launching an online auction next week for a host of artifacts stretching back decades.
“It’s going to be a huge mix of MCI memorabilia,” shares CEO Chris Harms. “There’s everything from leftover yearbooks, clothing, grad photos, all the sports banners that were hanging in the gym …”
What you won’t see on the auction block is any of the core school furniture or equipment, which the ownership group is hoping to sell with the land and buildings.
“Our goal was to keep all the items that a school would need so that in the event that another group were to buy the school and start up a school, they would have a lot of foundational items to get going,” Harms explains, noting the property has been posted in a few places online since the school’s closure due to financial difficulties was announced this summer. “We’ve had a number of inquiries, so we’re just kind of walking through all that now.”
This auction is focused on getting MCI memorabilia into the hands of people who will appreciate it most.
“For people that it’s important to, we wanted them to have a chance to have it, as opposed to it just ending up in a storage warehouse or thrift store,” Harms says.
“Lots of people have been asking what will happen to it all. Lots of people have been asking to have it,” he says. “We wanted to do it in a way that everyone gets a fair chance at it.”
The hope, of course, is also to generate some income for the organization as it closes up shop.
“That will allow us to continue paying bills,” Harms says. “We hope to continue paying all the creditors that are still outstanding, and then eventually hopefully we can sell the building and clean everything up so that we can at least end well as an organization.”
The auction goes live on Oct. 21 and will run until Nov. 21. A few items are already up to view, but more will be added in the days to come. Registered users will receive notifications of items as they’re added.
“We’re just in the process of taking photos and writing descriptions of everything. So every day or every couple of days there will be more going up,” Harms says. “We’re going through room by room right now to see what it is that we’ll all want to sell.”
Once the auction is done, donation receipts will be issued for all items purchased above fair market value.
To bid, simply make an account at app.galabid.com/mci-auction/items.
