Et Cetera Inc. is planning a yearlong 50th anniversary celebration for 2024. A series of community events will celebrate 50 years of Et Cetera operation in Bluffton.
Events throughout 2024 will include a summer garden tour, style show, customer appreciation days at each store, a comforter blitz for MCC and repurposing/crafts for kids at Bluffton Family Recreation, as well as other events.
Initially opened as a thrift and gift store in 1974, Et Cetera was created by the late Lois Sommer Kreider, then of Bluffton, and was sponsored by local Mennonite churches. Today, Et Cetera Inc. is operated by a non-profit board and is sponsored by six area churches: First Mennonite, Bluffton; Bluffton Presbyterian Church, Bluffton; Grace Mennonite, Pandora; Salem Mennonite, Elida; Lima Mennonite, Lima; and St. John Bible, Pandora.
Et Cetera Inc. has grown from one store to three separate stores: Et Cetera Shop, a thrift store at 327 N. Main; Ten Thousand Villages Bluffton, a cultural gift store selling fair trade goods handcrafted by global artisans at 115 S. Main; and Book ReViews, a store selling gently used books at 123 S. Main. Each shop employs a manager assisted by a team of volunteers.
Et Cetera is part of a network of not-for-profit stores that support local and global relief, development and peace projects of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC.)
The 50th anniversary steering committee is led by Joyce Schumacher and includes Susie Gratz, Heidrun Awad, Cindy Luginbill, Shirley Sommer, and Mary Pannabecker Steiner.
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