Time sure flies when you're having fun, they say! Hello again and welcome back. At this point in my journey I am excited about January 2007. There is so much happening and so much to learn about our world. Fair Trade is moving and growing on Long Island and today I was able to connect with another fair trade company not far from us. The Groovy Mind is the name of their company and they are an online store. They are very excited about their organic coffees and teas and most likely in the coming year I will be selling some of them on our shelves in our fair trade store in Hampton Bays. We shared about our business experiences and how lonely, at times, we feel. I shared with her that a strong fair trade coalition will help us all and she agreed. So I look forward to meeting them in January for a "greeting meeting!" Also, I am being blessed by a man who is at the center of many resources for our work. He works at Stony Brook University and is full of contact people that could help generate much good here on Long Island. I have already contacted some of these people that he referred to me.
The documentary, "Black Gold" about the coffee farmers in Ethiopia is being shown in January near us and I have already reserved four tickets for us to go and see and learn about that issue in fair trade. Also, there is another documentary to be shown in early February called "Lives For Sale" done by the Maryknoll Missionaries about human trafficking which also fits well into our work. So I am excited that good things are being done for people all around the world. Another thing I learned was that in NYC there is a fair trade cafe called "Paradise Cafe" down on 8th Avenue and 17th Street. Our little band of fair trading volunteers will go into NYC in January to the International Gift Show and guess where we'll have lunch? You're right, Paradise Cafe! So with all that is going on in fair trade in the coming month, who wouldn't be excited? Go to www.oxfamamerica.org and click on the Ethiopia article on the lower right hand corner and watch the video about the Starbucks campaign which occurred on December 16th. It was very good and many people learned about the needs of the Ethiopian coffee farmers and why they only receive three cents for each cup of coffee that is sold. Who gets the other $2.90 or more per cup at Starbucks? It is a good time to learn about fair trade. Check out some of my web links here on the blog and keep your eyes open for all that is happening!
