Mystery Quilt donated to Conservation Dinner
Colourful Mystery Quilt one of many unique items donated to 35th Conservation Dinner
Former Conservation Dinner Committee Chair Janet Clarke incorporates fascinating donated fabric of unknown origin into quilt donated to auction on April 3, 2025
One of the highlights for guests of the Conservation Dinner is seeing and bidding on beautiful, one-of-a-kind items that are donated to this popular charitable community event.
Janet Clarke is a former Conservation Dinner Committee Chair, community volunteer, and member of the Board of Directors of Ausable Bayfield Conservation Foundation (ABCF). She is also a donor to the auction. This year, she is donating a colourful and eye-catching piece she calls the Mystery Quilt. The quilt is a mystery, she said, because it incorporates some donated fabric that arrived at her home as a mysterious donation with an unknown history.
Janet and her friends sew quilts and capes and fidget aprons and other items for local charitable causes. She doesn’t know the source of the colourful fabric pieces that arrived at her door but she had an inspiration to use them in her design for the Mystery Quilt she is donating this year. She calls the fabric “funky,” and “neat.”
Some of the squares were sewn and she pieced the others in her design which she then had machine-quilted. The fact she doesn’t know who dropped off the fabric or where it came from gives the donation a fun and special quality. “I was happy to get it,” she said. It was enjoyable seeing the visually impactful piece come together. “It was my happy summer project,” she said. “It made me happy doing it.”
The 35th Conservation Dinner takes place on Thursday, April 3, 2025. This gala dinner and auction has raised more than $1.39 million, for projects in local communities, over its history dating back three and a half decades. The event features a live auction, silent auction, general raffles, special raffles, appetizers and a delicious Dinner.
It’s a chance for fun and fellowship and to support needed projects, in local communities, such as outdoor recreation, trails and parks and conservation areas, habitat for local species, and programs for local youth.
The Mystery Quilt is one of the unique items at the charity auction this year. Other items include dining, sports, arts, crafts, travel experiences, and much, much more. To buy tickets to the Conservation Dinner, or to donate, phone 519-235-2610 or toll-free 1-888-286-2610 or email info@abca.ca or visit the Ausable Bayfield Conservation office east of Exeter at 71108 Morrison Line (south of Highway 83).
The Conservation Dinner takes place at South Huron Recreation Centre at 94 Victoria Street East in Exeter. Tickets are $100 each and patrons receive a charitable gift receipt, for income tax purposes, for a portion of that amount. Find out more at conservationdinner.com and the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Foundation’s Conservation Dinner web page.
Exeter Lions Club has been co-partner, with ABCF and the watershed community, on the Dinner, since 1991. Net profits are split 50-50 between community conservation projects of the Conservation Foundation and community conservation projects of the Exeter Lions Club.