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Pocono News Section
Fair Trade Sale Helps Artists Worldwide
Fair Trade Sale Helps Artists Worldwide - Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 6:03PM EST
Reported by: Jeremy Deebel
Thursday, Nov 20, 2008 @ 06:03pm EST
Williamsport, Lycoming County-
Some Penn College students are providing a helping hand to artisans from all over the world. It's called the Ten Thousand Villages Festival Sale.
They've got everything here from baskets and pictures frames, to jewelry and candles. But this isn't your average garage sale fare; everything here is hand-crafted, one-of-a-kind stuff.
And the proceeds here go directly to the artists who created it all.
Because Ten Thousand Villages is a fair trade organization, the artists who create these crafts are paid a fair wage for the products even before they are sold.
Penn College student Teresa Schon explained, "They get a larger percentage of the profits whereas if you go to other stores mostly the corporations get the profits. These benefit these people and their families in those countries where they have very little money and very little resources."
And with the holidays approaching, many are taking advantage of the sale to do a little early gift shopping. After all, there's plenty here to choose from.
Alesha Love, a junior at Penn College, noted, "One woman said she needed a bigger basket for her books, and a lot of people look forward to this because of the cause."
The students organizing the sale are part of the Human Services program at Penn College. They also volunteered a day at a fair trade warehouse in Lancaster County.
It's their way of giving back to poor artists around the world, some of whom live on as little as $30 or $40 dollars a month.
Schon added, "So this is just one more avenue that we can do our part to bring awareness to other people's sufferings and needs and do our part to help out in any way we can."
The fair trade sale at Penn College will continue tomorrow from 9-4. It's being held in the Bush Campus Center lobby, and it's open to the public.
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