Our friend Dean (of Dean’s Beans fame) is active with the other project we invest alot of time into, the abolitionist group Not For Sale. He has transformed Dean’s Beans into one of the first abolitionist companies in the US.

Dean has also recently uploaded a few videos that speak directly into the heart of what Fair Trade means to an individual producer and community, based on his work in Ethiopia and Papua New Guinea. Recommended and uplifting!

The Green Festival is coming to Seattle (where Fair Trade Sports is
based) this Spring!

Green Festival is a joint venture between Global Exchange and Coop America. I’m serving on the Host Committee to welcome this show to our city. We met last week at the Seattle Aquarium for a work session that was 50-people strong. Seattle-area leaders representing
groups ranging from electric vehicles to green media to social justice nonprofits. Exciting!

My favorite part was Global Exchange Co-Founder Kevin Danaher’s short talk about the two cycles currently at odds in our world…the Money Cycle and the Life Cycle. His question/challenge to our team was, “Which cycle will dominate?”

    

I know which cycle my crew will work towards…LIFE!

Susan and I have been fans of the Gaiam catalog for years, especially when they purchased the Real Goods company (I dream about putting solar panels on my house).

Be sure to check your mailbox this week for the Fall 07 Gaiam catalog featuring our Fair Trade soccer ball, football, and basketball.

We launched Fair Trade soccer balls (along with footballs and basketballs) at Whole Foods yesterday.

On a gorgeous Fall day in Seattle, Whole Foods team members worked with Coach Shelley Patterson of the WNBA Seattle Storm and Fair Trade Sports to corral a truckload of rambunctious elementary students into healthy and educational games, supporting the 2007 Governor’s Health Bowl.

We used a modified version of this Oxfam soccer game (PDF) to get the students talking and thinking about the word “fair” in relation to a tangible item they can experience, like a soccer ball. The parents asked lots of questions about the Fair Trade and eco-friendly aspects of the soccer balls. My hope is that we spurred more dinner table conversation with these families last night about what is fair versus unfair when they think about the producers of the products we use every day.


Pictured here is Jenna Pool and Michele DeAnda from Whole Foods (foreground) awarding Fair Trade soccer balls as prizes to the students who correctly answered questions posed by Coach Patterson (background). She had some tough questions!

Be sure to look for the display of Fair Trade footballs, basketballs, and soccer balls next time you are in your area’s Whole Foods Market. Should that specific store not have any, hand the manager one of our Ambassador cards with a request to begin stocking the sports balls this Fall!

:)

The good folks at Equal Exchange have just updated their fundraising program to include a new incentive…an EE-branded Fair Trade soccer ball!

The largest worker-owned coffee roaster in the country, Equal Exchange offers tours to fundraising groups for coffee and chocolate tasting. In some areas (such as Portland, OR), they will also send a crew out to your school assembly to help launch the new program.

Contact them if you are interested, and be sure to tell Kelsie we said hello!

And if you need a Fair Trade soccer ball (or any of our other sports) branded with your organization’s colors and logos (minimum order 250 balls), just let us know! If you need less than 250 sports balls, just head over to our Gear Shop to see our volume pricing on all orders of 10+ balls.

Washington Post writer Kathleen Hom just published an interesting article on the greening of sports gear.

In it, Kathleen explores gear ranging from surfboards to sports balls, and pulls expert opinions from Ken Segal, a composite materials engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and Hugh Casey, former head of the materials technology division at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

After reading about the new bamboo longboards, I know what I’ll be hoping to receive for Christmas this year.

Kathleen interviewed Becky Bavinger - one of our East Coast customers - about our Fair Trade soccer balls for the article, who reported that the eco-friendly soccer balls from Fair Trade Sports played great and felt just like a normal ball. Take a read through the article when you get a few free minutes.

Our friends at Fair Indigo just released their Autumn catalog.

They have a recycled, fair trade fleece jacket made from 50% recycled soda bottles by a fair trade cooperative in Costa Rica. How cool is that?!

They are also carrying our children’s Fair Trade soccer balls. Grab one to go with your Fair Indigo fleece jacket this Fall!

Sustainability is simple. It’s about living in a way that leaves the world better for future generations. Who doesn’t want to do that?

My friend Sami at The Change helped Larry and his crew put together the enjoyable site Sustainability School. Suggest you check it out when you have a few free minutes.

Who’s Larry? Why, the infamous Larry from Larry’s Beans, of course.

From our friends at Transfair…a cool Top 12 list of ways that each of us can support Fair Trade throughout our day.

Here’s the short version, you can read the full version on their site:

Vote. Ask. Host. Join. Celebrate. Learn. Donate. Introduce. Start. Fundraise. Give. Serve.

Just the short version is enough to start kicking off exciting ideas in
my head. Kudos to the Transfair staffer who created this list!