Amish Auction Raises 6 Figures For A Genetic Clinic They Founded — Another Happens Next Week
An Amish-organized benefit auction in Spartansburg, Pennsylvania – now in its 14th year – raised $130,000 earlier this month for the DDC Clinic.
The Corry Journal reported on the auction’s success. The photos here are of the event and via the DDC Clinic Facebook page.
And there is a second one in Ohio coming soon (more on that below).
Local Amish families in the Spartansburg area organized and ran the auction. Most items were aimed at Amish buyers – farm equipment, quilts, home décor, furniture – though as is the case with most Amish-run auctions, the general public was welcome. Raffle items included a buggy, a patio set, and a $1,500 shopping spree.
Of the money raised, 84.5% goes to the clinic’s services:
…specifically to subsidize the Genetic Awareness Panel (GAP) cost, patient care and equipment.
According to ddcclinic.org, the GAP was developed by the molecular diagnostics laboratory in Middlefield.
It is a groundbreaking diagnostic tool that can simultaneously test for 270 rare genetic disorders found in the Amish population.
As covered in our recent post, DDC Clinic (Das Deutsch Center for Special Needs Children) was founded in Middlefield, Ohio in November 1999 by Amish families in Geauga County who wanted answers about genetic disorders showing up in their children.
The Pennsylvania side is much more recent. A location opened in Crawford County, PA (Titusville) in 2024, roughly 15 miles from Spartansburg.
The Spartansburg auction, supporting the original Middlefield clinic, is apparently what prompted the new location. Enough patients were making the drive to Middlefield that the clinic decided to move closer to them.
The Titusville office has gotten off to a strong start, with more than 200 genetic diagnoses, and having served over 400 families, including patients from New York, New Jersey, and West Virginia.
Most of that work runs through the above-mentioned Genetic Awareness Panel. The clinic reports that 98 percent of Titusville diagnoses were made using it.
Over the past two years the clinic has worked with the National Institutes of Health and partnered with the Cleveland Clinic and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
The clinic’s Chief Health Care Provider, Nicole Stevens, says a Family Heart Center is planned for Titusville, modeled on the one in Middlefield and staffed by cardiologists who specialize in rare cardiogenetic disorders.
The Middlefield Auction Is August 28
If you missed this one, you still have a chance to attend a DDC Clinic auction this year. The 26th Annual DDC Clinic Benefit Auction takes place Friday, August 28 at Maple Country Farms in Middlefield, Ohio – heart of the Geauga County Amish community, the country’s fourth-largest.
Lunch is served beginning at 11 a.m. and the auction starts at 2 p.m. Check our original post for more details.
There’s at least one more event on the clinic’s benefit schedule this year – the Call to the Heart Raffle at the Chardon Rotary Harvest Auction is on Saturday, November 7, at the Bellavie in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. More information can be found at ddcclinic.org.
