Deborah Sharpe is an avid supporter of fair trade coffee and other products. MCC Photo/Nina Linton HAPPY VALLEY- GOOSE BAY, N.L. – Deborah Sharpe knows that every purchase at the annual Ten Thousand Villages festival sale here makes a difference in the lives of artisans in developing countries. That’s why she shops at the sale and shares her passion with others through volunteering. “I’ve been volunteering at the sale for about 10 years,” said Sharpe, a mother of two teenage daughters. “I like to volunteer because I know this sale is helping the artisans who make these products. I think of all the hard work they put into it and what this money means to them. At the end of the day, that’s my reason for doing this.” The 2011 event, held October 22, had sales of $14,540, a 2.3 per cent increase over last year. Northern Cross Community Church hosts the sale. Happy Valley Goose Bay, with a population of about 7,500 people, is among 40 communities in Atlantic Canada that host a Ten Thousand Village festival sale, said Brian Elliot, coordinator of the Atlantic Canada Festival Sales. About 1,200 volunteers are involved in the events which are organized and hosted by churches and community groups in Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, explained Elliot. The sales are supported by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) offices in Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick, volunteers from MCC’s Service Opportunities for Older People (SOOP) program and other volunteers working in the Ten Thousand Villages warehouse in Petitcodiac, N.B. Annual retail sales from these events in Atlantic Canada have grown to approximately $600,000. Through hundreds of other similar festival events, online shopping and a network of 48 stores in Canada and 72 in the U.S., Ten Thousand Villages sells products that provide vital and fair income to 120 artisan groups in 30 countries. Ten Thousand Villages, currently celebrating its 65th anniversary year, exists because of the time and energy given by dedicated volunteers, said Bev Hiebert, director of sales for Ten Thousand Villages Canada. Ten Thousand Villages is rooted in a small fair trade project started in 1946 by MCC worker, Edna Ruth Byler, of Akron, Pennsylvania when she brought home linen needlework made by women she met in Puerto Rico. She then sold these items to her friends and neighbours and shared the stories of the women who made the items. By the 1970s her grassroots campaign had developed into MCC’s Self Help Crafts program which in 1996 became Ten Thousand Villages. Today, Byler is recognized as the founder of the fair trade movement in North America and Ten Thousand villages has grown to be the largest alternative trade organization in North America, said Hiebert. Sharpe first learned about the fair trade movement when she shopped at the former seasonal Ten Thousand Villages store in Happy Valley Goose Bay. When the decision was made to close the seasonal store and hold one-day festival sales, Sharpe got involved as a volunteer. As a volunteer, she has another reason to appreciate the community’s strong support for the sale. “The more we sell, the less we have to do for clean-up,” she said. Gladys Terichow is a writer for MCC Canada. 10/24/11

August 26, 2011 - "Java Beans" I've just filled the hopper in my new Baratza burr grinder. Organic Fair-Trade beans from Guatemala. Forty grind settings to choose from... with micro-adjustments for humidity and weather changes. Cup-after-cup of happiness! Life is good! * * *