We just completed the 27th Festival of Fair Trade in Spokane and what an event it was. We started this event to give the folks in Spokane a chance to shop for Fair Trade items before there was a Fair Trade store in here. It’s unbelievable how folks have loyally followed us from a basement to various other venues and now to the beautiful Community Building! We see people year after year who say they wait for our little postcard in the mail so that they know when to come and participate in this event! We are always so touched.
This year we had another incredibly successful event and were joined by 6 other Fair Trade vendors with goods from all over the world and we set up next to Spokane’s beautiful fair trade store, Kizuri. All of us were astounded at the huge amount of support and the fun and community that was exhibited. It was a beautiful contrast to the stories of pepper spray out in the big box stores. I commented to several people about how wonderful it was to see people running into friends and visiting, drinking fair trade coffee, admiring the beautiful handmade products, sitting on the couch and just having a great community experience while supporting Fair Trade. This is the world I would like to envision!
We also had great publicity from our community newspapers this year and for that we are so grateful. The Fig Tree ran two different articles on Fair Trade. One well deserved article on Ganesh Himal’s wonderful marketing director Sarah Calvin entitled “Marketing fair trade involves educating and connecting people” and another about the great Fair Trade event put on every year by the First Presbyterian Church here in Spokane. That article can be found here . The Spokesman Review published a wonderful story on the front page of their TODAY section called “Value Shopping” and that drew in a lot of new shoppers who hadn’t heard of the festival before. We had so many comments from people who had read this article and were thrilled to have the opportunity to come to an event like this! The Inlander chose us as one of their Inlander Picks and wrote up a great review of the show which drew in another large group of people! The media definitely makes a difference and we’re really happy to have gotten the press we did!
It’s hard to believe that 27 years have passed since we first started this show and it’s hard to believe how many people now understand the value of placing their gift buying dollars where they really count and can make a positive difference in people’s lives. I told many shoppers the story of Laxmi and how when we first met her daughter was 3 years old and she so badly wanted to send her to school. Now her daughter is 30 and has a masters degree in social work. These are the things that happen when trade works for the benefit of all. There are thousands of these positive stories in the Fair Trade world and as more people choose to support Fair Trade more lives, particularly women’s, will be changed.
So, happy holidays to all and thanks for all of the great support. I’ll post a few pictures of the Festival and look forward to the next. Keep Fair Trade in your thoughts and support every Fair Trade store out there with your holiday shopping!
