Our Retirement Days: Ten Thousand Villages 2013 Sale

Wednesday 30 October 2013

Ten Thousand Villages 2013 Sale

Thursday October 31, 2013 to Saturday November 2, 2013

Hanover Mennonite Church

172-5th Street

Hanover Ontario

By Marg Berg

Hanover Mennonite Church has been hosting an annual Ten Thousand Village Festival Sale in our church building at 172-5th Street for the past 10 years.

The sale taking place on Thurs., Oct 31 and Fri., Nov.1 from 9 a.m. to 9p.m. and Sat., Nov. 2 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. will be our 11th annual sale.

Volunteers gather to assemble shelves in the church sanctuary, meet the delivery truck, unpack and display the handcrafted items preparing for customers when doors open on the sale days.

Ten Thousand Villages, a non-profit program of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), is the oldest and largest Fair Trade Organization in North America. Ten Thousand Villages intentionally looks to work with artisans who are unemployed or underemployed (mostly women and disabled persons).

They believe that men and women around the world have a simple dream - to earn an honest living, provide a home, food and education for their children and to be gainfully employed in a job that brings dignity and joy.

Working directly with the artisans, a fair price for products is mutually agreed upon. Artisans are paid 50 % in advance when an order is placed so that they can buy the raw materials and other necessary supplies.

The balance is received when shipment is ready, before the product even reaches Canada or the U.S.A. To this basic cost, shipping, importing, warehousing, marketing and administration costs are added to arrive at the price the consumer pays. Through fair trade, artisans receive respect, dignity and hope from working hard and earning fair value for their work.

Products sold by Ten Thousand Villages are often made in small group settings or in homes and because they are handcrafted, no two items are identical.

Games, toys, jewellery, musical instruments, personal care and accessories, home decor items, books, CD's and many Christmas decorations are among the many beautiful handcrafted items.

Many food items are also available - coffee, tea, chocolate, spices, sugar, olive oil to name a few. You travel the world when you visit a Ten Thousand Villages Festival Sale.