Ten years of, wool, wood and pickles

A message from above inspired a Carterton couple to sell clothing for church funds. Ten years on, Janice and Kelvin Loveday are retiring from organising the clothing sale, the same year they've made 1071 jars of pickles, boxed 380 portions of firewood and bagged 174 onion bags of kindling for the Wednesday afternoon sale. "We're good stirrers and the little wooden spoon has got smaller and smaller and smaller with all the stirring we've done," Mrs Loveday said of all the jars of pickles she and her husband have made.
Over 10 years, the couple has raised $87,274 for St Mark's Anglican Church in Carterton through the sale, money earmarked for missionary work abroad and in Carterton, Mrs Loveday said. The seed for the sale was planted in March 1997, when the vestry expressed concern at the financial position of the church at its annual meeting, Mrs Loveday said.
The first sale was held that June after Mrs Loveday prayed about what she could do to help. "A seed was planted in my heart," Mrs Loveday said, and quotes a Bible verse from Matthew: "Still other seed fell on good soil where it produced a crop."
The sale began with just two clothing stands and has grown to 32. Mr and Mrs Loveday take me through the storage space at the church two rooms crammed with clothing, boxes of shoes, Manchester, rags, firewood, produce and hand-knitted children's clothing and rugs.
The whole pickle-making deal began when someone suggested Mr Loveday make some marmalade to raise funds for a trolley, which he did.
When the Times-Age printing press was in operation, it was one of the sale's biggest customers for old rags to clean the machinery, Mr Loveday said. "They used to love to see us coming because there would be all clean, washed rags (for them). They had to be the size of a handkerchief," he said.
Before the last clothing sale under the Lovedays' guidance last week, Mr Loveday and his 11 volunteers cycled and walked around Carterton delivering 1600 pamphlets.
Janice and Kelvin Loveday are sad to say goodbye to 10 years of organising a clothing sale for St Mark's Anglican Church in Carterton, calling for clothing donations and raising awareness of the sale.
While the Lovedays, who last month celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, are sad to say goodbye to the clothing sale, they feel the time is right to pass on the reins to someone else. "The 10 years has just flown by, hasn't it?" Mrs Loveday said to her husband. "We have 26 wonderful people (helping) and think every one of them have been a very important cog in the wheel. The success of the clothing sale is due to them all. The clothing sale is going to still carry on with a different format and we wish (the new organisers) all the best."