Fair trade, Fairer world

This weekend, we had the exciting opportunity to assist with our church's annual Ten Thousand Villages sale!

Here we are unpacking and setting up on Thursday night.

Currently there's no Ten Thousand Villages store in Colorado Springs -- the closest store is in Denver. So nine years ago, Paula (member of our Service Adventure Support Committee and all-around stellar human being) decided to organize a sale of TTV products in order to improve access to fair trade, increase knowledge of fair trade practices, and generally support the organization.

Here is everything all set up!

The event took place Friday afternoon and evening and continued Saturday morning and early afternoon. It attracted quite a crowd (over 130 paying customers on Friday alone), and though I haven't heard any sale totals yet, it was obvious that a lot was sold.

The six of us in the Service Adventure household volunteered in various ways -- greeting shoppers, recording purchases, cashiering, refilling coffee and snacks -- but we still had plenty of time to soak in the beauty of handmade crafts and art. And eat cookies. 

Even more than the fact that it was fun, it felt great to help with this effort to make the world a better place by giving artisans (especially women in developing countries) a hand up.

That glass pendant necklace slightly left of center, with the abstract tree? LOVE. If I could condense my NaNoWriMo story into a necklace, it would look like that. Sadly, I already own such a large number of necklaces (many of them from TTV originally) that it could be considered overkill. I love them all, of course. But I left this beauty for someone else, and by Saturday afternoon, it was gone. 

In the end, my own purchases stayed true to my foodie persona: spicy hot cocoa with cayenne pepper, and a box of one of the newest tea blends: Rooibos chai! (I've already sampled them both, and they're great.)

Overall, this weekend was an invigorating and inspiring experience. Never having been to one of these before, I didn't expect so many customers, nor did I expect so many who had never even heard of Ten Thousand Villages before. It was wonderful to introduce new people to the fair trade lifestyle and share with them why it's so important.

So in light of this, I ask you to consider the sourcing of your future purchases, especially as you begin choosing holiday gifts. Opting for fair trade is a small step in which you can be assured that you are making a difference. And you'll get better quality products, too!