Rugged Cross foundation to host fundraisers
Published 12:53 pm Tuesday, July 15, 2008
By Staff
NILES – The Old Rugged Cross (ORC) Historic Site in Pokagon, needs your help with two upcoming activities involving good food and good bargains.
The first event is the 10th annual Old Rugged Cross Rummage and Bake Sale, Friday and Saturday, July 18 and 19, at the Michigan National Guard Armory, 700 W. Prairie Ronde in Dowagiac.
With paved parking and indoor shopping, this is an all-weather event.
Sale hours are 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Friday, July 18, and 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 19.
Sloppy Joe sandwiches, chips, coffee, bottled water and soft drinks will be available. And back again by popular demand is the event's usual outstanding selection of quality rummage and baked goods.
The event usually includes more than 40 large tables stacked with rummage, plus additional bargains displayed along the sides of the Armory's large arena. As one shopper said, upon seeing the sale's dozens of tables of merchandise, "Now THIS is a rummage sale."
Secondly, the Old Rugged Cross volunteers will again serve delicious home-style food daily from July 28 through Aug. 2 at the Cass County Fair in Cassopolis. The "ORC Restaurant" is in the "Grange" building across the midway from the Grandstand. The menu includes daily specials as well as the traditional Sloppy Joe sandwiches and sausage gravy with biscuits.
Individuals, couples and church/community groups (age 18 and older, please) are needed as volunteers to help staff the restaurant. The training is simple; previous restaurant experience not required. Please call 683-4540 by July 21 if you can help.
ORC volunteers also will staff an Old Rugged Cross Historic Site information booth in the fair's Commercial Building, just west of the Grandstand.
A Silent Auction and Dixieland Band Concert on Aug. 16 will also benefit the restoration
The event will include a live performance by the Jackson French Quarter Dixieland Band. They will perform traditional Dixieland jazz selections as well as sacred songs with Dixieland "flavorings." The band formed in 1984 to share a love of traditional New Orleans Dixieland jazz.
The auction and concert will begin at 6:30 p.m., at the Michiana Christian Embassy at 1922 E. Main St. in Niles.
The Original Old Rugged Cross Church is where the hymn, "The Old Rugged Cross" was sung publicly in its entirety for the first time in 1913. The church is a Registered Michigan Historic Site and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The facility is being restored as closely as possible to its 1913 appearance, to serve as a museum and venue for special, scheduled events such as weddings, funerals and community gatherings.
Donors' gifts in the past 10 years have funded significant progress on the restoration, including stabilizing the building, the new foundation, replica bell tower, replica exterior wooden siding, new window frames with temporary Lexan inserts, and just earlier this summer, floor joists and a subfloor in the former sanctuary.
Proceeds from these events will help fund additional work on the church.
The Historic site also includes the half-acre Old Rugged Cross Memorial Garden. The Garden is available for weddings and other special, scheduled events, as well as for unscheduled meditation.
The Old Rugged Cross Historic Site is located one block south of Pokagon Highway in Pokagon, just east of Highway M-51 between Niles and Dowagiac.
Information about the Old Rugged Cross Historic Site, including scheduling group tours, also is available by writing to the Old Rugged Cross Foundation at PO Box 41, Niles, MI 49120, or by sending an e-mail inquiry to orcf@aol.com.
Anyone interested in donating items for the silent auction, please contact the ORCF at (269) 683-4540.
The Internet address is www.the-oldruggedcross.org