After losing some $100,000 this past year due to COVID-19, Crooked Creek Christian Camp is hosting its first-ever online auction in an effort to recoup some of those losses. The camp south of Washington is owned and operated by the Southeast Iowa Mennonite Camping Association composed of 17 Mennonite churches and numerous individuals. Organizers don’t have a set dollar goal to be raised by the auction, but camp Executive Director Heather Bender says any money brought in will help their operation, “With COVID our guest groups have cancelled which has gone way down. We have had a summer unlike any other we’ve ever had before with cancelling summer camps. Our biggest guest groups usually happen during the summer, so we didn’t have that this summer, but then, too, as we get into winter and the number of positive cases keep going up, we still continue to have guest groups cancelled.” Crooked Creek Program Director Saralynn Oyer says the virtual auction will feature over 250 items up for bid including a trip for four to Mexico, plus many locally-produced bidding items now available for preview at www.MennoniteAuctions.org. The auction begins December 1 and goes through December 6.