Church event rakes in more than $11,000

For the children of Bloomington's First Presbyterian Church, the Heifer Market Sunday meant a chance to pet live geese and baby cows. But for several impoverished families around the world, it will mean the chance to earn a living.\nThe church's 18th annual Heifer Market was a project of Heifer International, a nonprofit organization that seeks to raise money to provide struggling families throughout the world with animals and teach them how to raise and market them in hopes of giving the families a starting point to make a living. Sunday's event raised a total of more than $11,250 toward that goal.\nAt the market, people donated money for groups or shares of animals. The church then passed along these funds to Heifer International, which will buy animals and distribute them worldwide for families to use on their farms. The organization buys livestock that are common in America such as sheep, cows and pigs, as well as more specialized livestock such as water buffalo and honey bees.\n"It gives a gift to people in Third World countries that keeps on giving. I think it's a really great exercise to show people that potential," said Kimberly Buff, a First Presbyterian member who volunteered at the market as a cashier.\nThe church also brought in several live animals to display for the event that had been borrowed from local farmers. \n"We don't have any honeybees, water buffalo or llamas, but we've got about everything else," said retired veterinarian and church member Pat Riggins, who was responsible for finding and bringing in the animals on display at the market.\nFirst Presbyterian became involved in Heifer International in the late 1980s, when one of the congregation's members found out about the organization from a friend, Dan West, the founder of Heifer International. West brought it to the attention of the First Presbyterian congregation, which then took interest and set up the Heifer Market, Riggins said.\nSeveral members of the congregation volunteered as cashiers or helped with event logistics, but the children from the Sunday school classes decorated the event. Each Sunday school class learned about an animal and decorated a booth where donors could learn about the animals and how they could help needy families.\nEvan Main, a member of the fifth-grade Sunday school class, wore a sandwich board telling about water buffalo. They have come to be his favorite animal among the ones at the market, he said. \n"They provide milk protein and manure for fuel and provide draft power for farming," he said.\nWithin one hour of the market, the event raised more than $8,200, according to the tally volunteers put on an overhead projector.\n"We've been setting new records the past couple of years," said event coordinator Mary Beth Schmucker, "so this is exciting"