It's a clinic that does "great and wonderful work ... a lot of us Plain folks wouldn't know what to do" without it, as one man said.

It's the Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, which treats mainly Amish and Mennonite children for rare, metabolic disorders but also has patients from around the United States and the world.

And the 17th annual benefit auction to support the clinic will be held Saturday starting at 8:30 a.m. at the Leola Produce Auction on Brethren Church Road, Leola.

The auction, held the third Saturday of September every year, is one of the largest benefit auctions in Lancaster County.

Last year, more than 18,000 doughnuts were made; they were all sold by early afternoon.

Items to be auctioned this year include dozens of handmade quilts, including the top-selling "postage stamp" design, of more than 3,000 small squares.

Other items include a cherry roll-top desk and other locally made furniture, a replica one-room schoolhouse, a new Amish carriage, a pony-size spring wagon, original works of art and oriental rugs.

There also will again be plenty of food.

The clinic hopes to raise enough money to hire a third doctor to work with current staff physicians Holmes Morton and Kevin Strauss. The clinic's nine-member staff also includes laboratory director Erik Puffenberger, who leads much of the lab-based genetic research.

The clinic, on Bunker Hill Road, also wants to establish a program to identify the genetic causes of hearing loss in children.

Along with Saturday's auction, the clinic is seeking matching donations in response to a "challenge grant" from a Lancaster-area foundation which will donate $50,000 to the clinic if the amount can be matched by other donors.

For more information, call 687-9407.