"Meows From Maggie"

If you knew Maggie Lee, (if you live in Northfield you must know Maggie Lee), you know she loved cats and had an extensive collection of cat memorabilia.  Maggie recently passed away at the age of 92 and her cat figurine and cat memorabilia collection has been donated to the Prairie’s Edge Humane Society and the Northfield Historical Society with the intent that they sell the items as a fundraiser for the two organizations.  Maggie wrote about her love of cats and her collection of cat memorabilia in her column often during her 68 years of writing for the Northfield News. 

On July 16th about a dozen volunteers from both organizations gathered at Maggie’s previous home and carefully packed the 5000 plus items in the collection then moved them to a storage area at the Northfield Historical Society where they were then sorted into various categories.  Not a small task, but one which was done with care and gratitude for a woman who was a Northfield icon. It was also done with much amazement at the number of items in this collection. You have to see the collection to grasp the enormity of it.  It was mentioned to us that if Maggie were here she could probably tell us the story behind each and every one of these items as well.  She has even left the price tag on some of the items as well as written her name on the bottom of several of them. 

After sorting through the collection it was decided by the two organizations that the lesser value items will be sold at a booth on Bridge Square on Crazy Daze, Thursday, July 25th from 7:00 AM-3:00 PM.  All of the items from the collection which will be sold during Crazy Daze are priced from $1 to $5.  This is a huge collection consisting of everything imaginable with a cat theme. There are numerous varieties of glass, resin and plastic cat figurines and statues from very large to very small, musical cats, cat vases, cat mugs, cat bookends, cat cookie jars, hundreds of cat ornaments, cat memorabilia from other countries, cat wind chimes, cat collector plates, limited edition collector cats, and much, much more. 

If you are a collector of cat memorabilia or antiques, would like a remembrance of Maggie, or just want to support these two organizations, then stop by our booth on Bridge Square during Crazy Daze.  All funds raised from the sale will be split between the Prairie’s Edge Humane Society and the Northfield Historical Society, two organizations which Maggie cared deeply about. 

The larger items as well as the more valuable antique and collector items will be sold at an auction (date and location yet to be determined) later this year with the funds again being split between the two organizations.  Watch for details of this event! 

Maggie also left a rather large collection of personal items and other memorabilia to the Northfield Historical Society for their archives and they plan to do a display in Maggie’s honor at some point in the future. The funds they raise from the sale of the cat collection will be used to purchase items needed to store the artifacts left to them by Maggie.

The Prairie’s Edge Humane Society plans to use the funds they raise from the sale of the cat collection to continue their low cost spay/neuter programs for cats in an effort to reduce the overpopulation of cats in our communities.

Maggie was a founding member of the Northfield Historical Society and a great supporter of the Prairie’s Edge Humane Society for many years, adopting her most recent cat from PEHS in 2011. 

Please continue Maggie’s mission of supporting these two organizations who were very dear to her by purchasing a momentum from Maggie’s collection during Crazy Daze on Thursday, July 25th.   

Thank you Maggie, you have left us all with a wonderful gift and remembrance of you!