Ten Thousand Villages can help you save one community at a time.
By Alexia Severson
When Edna Ruth Byler visited Puerto Rico 66 years ago, she met a group of women sewing and selling beautiful tablecloths and napkins. They were still barely able to afford a decent home or an education for their children. Byler decided to take action. She started a grassroots campaign to sell the artisans’ handbags, jewelry and pottery out of the trunk of her car. Little did she know this small business would evolve into a company called Ten Thousand Villages, which, 36 years after Byler’s death, still pays fair wages for goods made in developing countries.
Today Ten Thousand Villages has grown into one of the biggest fair trade retailers in the world, with more than 390 U.S. locations and more than 130 artisan partnerships in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Chicago is home to three stores in Glen Ellen, Oak Park and Evanston that sell items such as jewelry, home décor and garden supplies. Many of the products are made from sustainable resources, such as old newspapers or recycled DVDs. The company cultivates long-term buying relationships with artisans who receive at least 50 percent in cash advances when an order is placed and payment in full when an order is shipped. This allows them to purchase equipment and raw materials without going into debt.
Seventy Chicago volunteers, ranging from teenagers to retirees, work as sales associates, but Doug Horst, manager of the Evanston store, says they always need more help. Applicants must provide two references when they apply and commit to working eight hours a month for a year. Margaret McClory, 79, who has volunteered at Ten Thousand Villages in Evanston since it opened in 1997, likes when young people see firsthand how simply buying a sculpture or piece of jewelry can provide a better home for the artisan who made it.
During her freshman year, Kate Abendroth, 18, became interested in volunteering at the store during a community service fair at Evanston Township High School. The Ten Thousand Villages booth stood out to her because it displayed ethnic pieces of jewelry and crafts from around the world. Through her experience working at the store in Evanston, she transformed her preconceived ideas about life in developing countries. “Now I know more about how people in Kenya make their living and cultural practices in Vietnam, and it can always help you relate to somebody that you might randomly meet,” she says.
If you want to volunteer at Ten Thousand Villages, visit tenthousandvillages.com or pick up an application at a nearby store.
Don’t have the time to commit to a full year of volunteer work?
Here are other ways you can help:
• Visit a store near you and make a purchase.
• Shop online at tenthousandvillages.com.
• “Like” the store’s Facebook page at facebook.com/tenthousandvillages.
• Help load and unload shipments for just a day
• Ask a store near you about other one-day volunteer opportunities it hosts.
• Plan a festival sale in your community:
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Go online and complete the Festival Sale Information Request, call (717) 859-8139, or email festivals.us@tenthousandvillages.com. Festival Sale details can be found at tenthousandvillages.com/get-involved.
Call a store near you and work with a Festival Sale Representative and decide how much merchandise to send to your event (TTV ships a minimum of $4,000 in the hope that you will sell 50 percent to 70 percent of the merchandise).
Set up free promotional material and get promotional advice from Ten Thousand Villages.
Keep 10 percent of the income you make from your sale.
