WOODSTOWN — There will be an international gift sale from Ten Thousand Villages at the Woodstown Friends Meeting Annex on North Main Street from Thursday, Dec. 1 through Sunday, Dec. 4.
This is the 21st year they have organized a Ten Thousand Villages sale.
Ten Thousand Villages is a non-profit organization that works with artisans in developing countries around the world. It began in 1946 when Edna Ruth Byler, a volunteer for the Mennonite Central Committee visited a sewing class in Puerto Rico. She saw women, living in poverty, with extraordinary talent hand sewing beautiful textiles.
Byler purchased some pieces to give to friends back home in the U.S. This inspired her to seek out artisans in other developing countries who were creating crafts by hand and she sold them from the trunk of her car in the U.S.
Ten Thousand Villages has grown to become one of the world’s largest fair trade organizations, with many retail stores in North America as outlets to give back to talented artists from small rural communities all over the world.
Staff from the main office in Akron, PA visits artist guilds in countries such as Haiti, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, and other countries, and pays artists for their handmade jewelry, ceramics, musical instruments, toys, scarves, handbags, and baskets of many sizes. The crafts are shipped to Akron and distributed to retail stores in the U.S. and to churches, schools, or community centers, which organize sales such as the one at Woodstown Friends Meeting in early December.
Proceeds from this sale are returned to Ten Thousand Villages enabling them to purchase additional beautiful hand-made crafts from developing countries, which provide funds for the artisans to pay for food, housing and education for their families.
Shop for holiday gifts which are exquisite, unique and special at the Ten Thousand Villages sale at Woodstown Friends Meeting annex, 104 North Main Street, Woodstown on Thursday (Dec 1) 3 to 8 p.m.; Friday 3 to 10 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 2 p.m.
Visit InternationalCrafts.org/ for more information about our international craft sale, email at woodstownmm@gmail.com, or call 856-478-4618.
