As an active board member of Chicago Fair Trade for the past three years, I've had the pleasure of seeing our fair trade community in Chicago grow by leaps and bounds. It's been humbling, exciting and exhausting at the same time!
Yesterday, May 4, www.World-Shoppe.com had the opportunity to take part in our second annual World Fair Trade Day celebration in Daley Plaza, in downtown Chicago. WOW. Talk about an amazing day! If there is a recession going on, you wouldn't know it based on how PACKED our www.World-Shoppe.com booth was! People were lined up to see all of our fair trade gifts, fair trade jewlery and to just learn more about fair trade. The fact that our event coincided with the week before Mother's Day didn't hurt, nor did the AMAZING Chicago weather, but what was really exciting was being able to really share the stories of our artisan groups with so many people who had never heard of the term fair trade before.
Countless people stopped by to ask what fair trade meant, why it was important to support, and I can't tell you how many people commented on how absolutely reasonable our prices were for products that were handmade!
I'm also very excited that most of the major media outlets in Chicago covered the event either the days leading up to it or literally the morning of our event! NBC5 Chicago covered two of our vendors, ABC7 Chicago featured yours truly (Megy Karydes) http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=6792522 as a representative of Chicago Fair Trade on Saturday morning LIVE on the air and we even enticed Ed Curran, meteorologist with CBS2 Chicago to do a segment LIVE yesterday morning just as we were opening our event to the public!
We also got some love from TimeOut Chicago and Chicago Tribune's RedEye and had our FULL PAGE FEATURE in this month's issue of Mindful Metropolis magazine.
And, Chicago Public Radio did a wonderful 20 minute segment with Chicago Fair Trade's executive director, Nancy Jones & Pushpika Freitas of Marketplace: Handiwork of India on Friday: http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/content.aspx?audioID=33928!
We're not quite yet a Fair Trade City in Chicago...but with this type of support and encouragement, I'm more hopeful than ever that we'll proudly claim the title very soon. Please join us in this important movement. Support fair trade whenever you can...ask for fair trade coffee at your local coffee shop or seek out retailer who carry fair trade gifts. Give your mother a fair trade necklace; a newly married couple a fair trade gift; a new graduate a fair trade gift certificate! The possibilities are endless. By choosing to re-allocate your dollars to companies that make a difference, we're all part of the solution!
Thank you again for your amazing support. I'm honored to be part of the fair trade movement and I hope you'll join more than 80 countries around the world this Saturday, May 9, as more than 50,000 Americans take a "Fair Trade Break" as part of World Fair Trade Day! Spread the message! WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! :-)
Smiling,
-Megy Karydes, Founder
www.World-Shoppe.com
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
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