Decades Long Laurelhurst Resident Invites Community To Unique Fair Trade Store Sale Tomorrow

(courtesy of Ten Thousand Villages) 




David Hennings, over six decade long resident of Laurelhurst, would like to invite the community to a special 25% off sale tomorrow at Ten Thousand Villages (6417 Roosevelt Way), a fair trade volunteer run handicrafts store with artisan goods from over 40 developing countries.  

David and his wife, Melissa, have lived in Laurelhurst all their lives. David attended Mimi's Nursery School at the Laurelhurst Park, Laurelhurst Elementary School, Eckstein Middle School and Roosevelt High School, where his dad also attended. 

David started traveling the developing world in college including all of Central America and Nepal, many times, as well as most of South America, Asia, India and Tibet. 

David, one day, walked by the Ten Thousand Villages Store, and said he "was hooked." 

He started there first as a volunteer and has been a board member for the last 13 years. The store name came about, David said, because it represents "villages" from around the developing world. 

"We buy, using fair trade standards re wages and working conditions, from hundreds of artisan workshops from at least 40 developing countries," David said. 

Ten Thousand Villages, was started in the 1940s by Edna Ruth Byler, after her visit to Puerto Rico where she met women who were struggling to feed their children. The women  were making fine embroidery pieces that Edna brought back and started selling them to friends and neighbors.
The website says:

By the 1950s, Enda was driving her Chevy packed with global needlework to women’s sewing circles and parties of interested friends across the country. She shared the stories of the makers, describing how each purchase meant that a woman gained economic independence and a chance to give her family a brighter future. 

It was a simple idea. But a pioneering one that would launch Ten Thousand Villages and blossom into a global fair trade movement.

Now there are Ten Thousand Villages stores located across the United States and Canada. Hundreds of items are available on-line for purchase.

David told the Laurelhurst Blog Staff:

Our store is run on a shoestring with about 90% of the work done by volunteers. The money is used to help our overhead, but also so we can buy even more handicrafts while keeping our prices rational. 

Artisans are paid full price for their goods up front. Good are picked up through partnerships with artisans, some by the Board and others by the parent organization but all are picked based on fair trade standards.

The Ten Thousand Villages website says:

Ten Thousand Villages is more than a store. It’s a place where you can explore and connect with your global village. 

From communities throughout the developing world, every inspired design is crafted with love using local materials (usually natural or recycled) and time-honored skills by makers we have known and worked with for years. 

Every purchase improves the lives of makers by supporting their craft and providing a fair, stable income. 

We pay mutually agreed upon prices for artisans’ creations and deliver advance payments to nurture resilient enterprises that can grow and flourish. 

We build lasting relationships with artisan groups, providing consistency and stability that allows makers to plan ahead and improve their quality of life. 

We ensure that artisans have safe and healthy places to work. Child labor is prohibited in an effort to keep kids in school and out of the workforce. 

We offer a way for you to become part of the story, to shop your values and give gifts with meaning. Because this is bigger than us.

David added:

Please come to the store! We have so many beautiful items.  Everything in our house looks like the store!  There are so many stories behind them demonstrating empowerment to folks in developing countries who have such a need for income.

For more information go here.