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Center marks Fair Trade Day
By Denise Dick
villa maria, Pa.
Purses made from recycled magazines, bowls constructed from candy wrappers and jewelry composed of pop-can tabs — they’re all examples of fair-trade products.
Villa Maria Community Center hosted a celebration of World Fair Trade Day on Saturday, drawing about 130 attendees plus volunteers.
Julie Arena, the center’s marketing director, said the event aimed to raise awareness of fair trade.
The Fair Trade Resource Network defines fair trade as “a competitive business model that takes into account social values often disregarded in conventional business — one that builds equitable, long-term partnerships between consumers in developed nations and producers in developing regions.
Workers earn a fair wage and have advancement opportunities, and the companies engage in environmentally sustainable practices, provide safe working conditions and provide financial and technical assistance to producers.
About seven years ago, the center’s Villa Shoppe offered mainly religious items for sale. Now, items mostly include fair-trade items such as jewelry, clothing, coffee, tea and chocolate.
Retail manager Yasmin Flor-Stull came to the shop from the corporate world, so fair trade was a new concept to her. But she now travels to other countries to meet artisans and organizers of co-operatives.
The first relationship she established was with a co-op in Mexico, and it took about six months. After finally meeting with the representatives, Flor-Stull worked with them on product development for the types of items that would work at the shop.
She’s worked on a coffee plantation in El Salvador operated by Equal Exchange, a fair-trade company, learning about what the workers do.
“For me, this has become a passion, and I love what I do,” Flor-Stull said.
Arena said the fair-trade movement is catching on with younger people as they become more socially conscious.
Natalie Terry, a volunteer at the center and a recent graduate of John Carroll University, got involved in the fair-trade movement after drinking excessive amounts of coffee while a college student. She wanted to learn more about how the drink went from bean to cup, and upon doing research, learned about some of the human-rights abuses perpetrated against those who work in the coffee fields.
Now, she tries to educate others about fair trade and seeks out those products herself.
Zach Darnell and Elizabeth Widomski, both of Boardman and both Youngstown State University students, became involved in the fair-trade movement through involvement in YSU’s chapter of Students In Free Enterprise.
Buying products from fair-trade companies improves the quality of life for people in other countries, Darnell said.
Kathy Golonka of New Castle works at the hair-styling salon at Villa Maria and is a frequent visitor to the Villa Shoppe. She bought some fair-trade tea Saturday. One of her favorite purchases, though, is a purse made from recycled magazines.
“I get all kinds of compliments on it,” she said. “Everyone wants to know where I bought it.”
Though one of her friends told her she paid too much for the accessory, Golonka reasons that the money went to help people who need it rather than to a wealthy company.
“It’s worth it,” she said.