Crete Rotary met for a regular meeting this past Wednesday. We were honored to have family members of one our longest serving members Jim Fahrnbruch. Jim's wife Jane accompanied Jim to the meeting along with his sister, Ann and her husband John Daniel and their daughter Emily. They live in, and are Rotary members in Sandusky, Ohio. Jim shared the story that the "Queen of Spades" raffle we hold at most of our regular meetings was originally done at the club in Sandusky and Jim brought it back to our club after having been a guest at a meeting in Sandusky.

 

 

Speaking of that drawing, we finally had a ticket winner draw the Queen of Spades from the deck and won the pot. Congratulations Paul Larsen!

 

Topics discussed at the meeting included volunteering at the Crete Pumpkin Festival coming up on Sunday October 8th and Grocery Grab ticket sales.

 

Dictionaries were delivered to all 3rd graders in Crete and Dorchester this past week. This is an annual and important task that Crete Rotary has taken on for many years. Thanks to all the members who helped make it happen. The dictionaries are just one of the items paid for by the funds we raise from our Grocery Grab fundraiser!

 

 

This week we heard from Jill Christy with Ten Thousand Villages.  It's a Fair-Trade Business in Lincoln's Haymarket!  Their store places an order with groups that make handmade items in underdeveloped countries around the world to sell in their shop!
 
The store pays 50% of the cost upfront so the artisan can get started making the item.  The other 50% is paid when the good is shipped (not when it's received) to ease the financial burden on the artisan.  if the good is damaged during the shipping, the store's insurance takes care of the cost so there's no repercussion on the artisan or organization!
 
Fair-Trade has been around since the 1940's when a woman named Edna Ruth Byer went to Puerto Rico, found some women selling their wares, with little success.  She loved the idea and wanted to support them so she bought as many items as she could fit in her suitcase, brought them to the US, and began selling here.  She made enough to go back down there, buy more, and sell again!  Edna formed an organization and trained smaller groups on the business model.  It's those smaller groups formed and trained in the 70's and 80's that Ten Thousand Villages still work with to this day.
 
Jill admits there is a markup on the goods--they have salaries to pay for employees, and rent in the Haymarket, but they do offer a fair price to the artisan looking at cost of raw material, input, overhead, household living cost, etc.  If you're looking for a new store to browse with a variety of goods, and that are helping artisans and underdeveloped countries, please consider checking out Ten Thousand Villages in the Haymarket.  

 

 

Our next meeting is October 11th at the VFW. Lt. Monty Lovelace of the Nebraska State Patrol is our speaker. His specialty is internet security, and it should be fascinating. See you there!