Fleming Pie Auction raises over $10,000

Most successful pie auction to date

April 21, 2025, 8:29 am
Ryan Kiedrowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Fleming Pie Auction on April 12 ended up raising more than $10,000, making it the most successful pie auction to date.

The annual event is a fundraiser for the Fleming Community Organization. With about 70 people living in Fleming, the organizers happy with the money raised.

“I really have no idea,” said Cindy Green of the Fleming Community Organization when asked what made this year such a money maker. “There were lots of people there, but I think last year there were probably the same amount of people.”

There were more pies this year—63 as compared to 39 pies in 2024—and the kid’s auction saw a nice increase as well.

“This year, we had 12 in the kid’s auction, whereas last year we only had four,” Green said.

Donations of baked goods came in right up to the last minute on April 12.
“I got a little nervous that we didn’t have as many as last year, but then the day of the auction, even close to seven o’clock, there were still people bringing pies to donate, so that was awesome,” Green said. “We had a couple of them that were still warm!”

Ty Cutler once again handled auctioneering duties, but this year he brought a friend along.

“He’s getting a lot more real world experience, so he can handle a crowd so well,” Green said of Cutler. “He just knows where to start the bidding and how fast to progress.

He’s doing amazing. And he brought an up-and-coming auctioneer, Walker Murphy, and he let Walker sell some pies, too, because we helped give Ty a start with auctioneering, we took a chance to have him come out and look how far he has gone from there. So he asked if Walker could come and I said, ‘for sure, let’s help him out.’ For a young man, he did so good.”

Top dollar pies

The pie that brought in the highest bids was a coconut cream that raised $500, followed by some $360 cinnamon buns courtesy of the Wiebe family.

“Whenever the Wiebes donate their pies or their dainties, they usually go top of the auction,” Green explained. “So we’re always so grateful when they donate something, because I just know that it goes really well.”

There’s also an online component to the Fleming Pie Auction that ran from April 5 to 10, and Green noted while there were fewer pies for the virtual event, the amount of money raised per pie was similar to previous years.

“We had less pies on the online portion, and so we didn’t get as much money as last year, but it was the same amount per pie last year we averaged,” she said, adding that in 2024, pies went for an average of $50 each while this year was $51.

“That’s always fun, too, because there’s lots of different people that will only buy on the online portion of it, and that’s fine with us,” Green said. “It’s nice to see previous residents of Fleming; It gives them the opportunity to purchase pies, and you’ll see they’ll donate it to a friend that still lives in the community, which is really sweet.”

One anomaly from the online auction this year was the amount of pies donated back to the live auction, which was a pleasant surprise to organizers.

“We actually had quite a few people donate their online pies into the in-person auction,” Green said. “That was amazing, I think there was close to 10 pies that were re-donated.”

Auction catches premier’s attention

The Fleming Pie Auction also piqued the attention of Premier Scott Moe, who mentioned the event as an example of tenacity during his address at the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association conference in Saskatoon last week.

“In the community of Fleming, 70 people proper that live in the community of Fleming, they had their annual pie auction this past week, $10,000 raised right there going to go right back into the community,” Premier Moe told attendees at TCU Place on April 14. “This is happening time after time after time in community after community, and it’s often you municipal leaders that are very much a part of each of those events, improving our communities at the very Main Street level. It’s part of what makes our province such a great place.”

Later, he told the World-Spectator how important fundraisers such as the pie auction are to local communities.

“This is how our communities were built, this is how our province was built,” he said. “Looking forward in such a chaotic time, maybe even a divisive time in Saskatchewan, Canada, and the world, maybe there’s pause for reflection in remembering how we successfully built this province and ensuring that we’re focused on getting back to that and staying there. It’s pretty exciting when you see a community—in this case, Fleming is 70 people —all come together and raise $10,000 which is going to go right back into their community.”

Moosomin-Montmartre MLA Kevin Weedmark also spoke about the fundraising efforts in the area during a Speaker’s Statement in the Legislative Assembly on April 14.

“My area is known for its success in fundraising,” he said. “Just this last Saturday, the Fleming Pie Auction in a town of 70 people raised more than $10,000, the most ever, as the Premier noted at SUMA this morning.”

He also spoke about the highly successful Tim Horton’s Smile Cookie Campaign and how the Moosomin location has set impressive fundraising records.