It's all happening in the Small World!
Following a meeting early in the new year with staff from North Berwick based Earth Matters, we now showcase each other's stock. This means that visitors to Orchard Crescent can peruse a wonderful range of children's clothing including Little Green Radicals t-shirts with their funky slogans "I Recycle My Tantrums" and "I only eat organic chips".
Another reason to pop into the shop is to see Douglas Findlay's watercolours. Douglas, a regular customer and member of Musselburgh Art Club, kindly donated five paintings to the Small World and prices are in the region of £10-£20.
Earlier this week, we were delighted to learn that we had been successful in receiving a grant of £150 from Fairtrade East Lothian. We will be using this award to trial a new honesty box scheme (more about which later) and to cover the cost of attending events, hold sampling days and other outreach throughout the county.
It's a busy time in the shop with many of our regular customers starting to hold church fairs again after the winter break. Happily, we are receiving lots of enquiries from new customers planning events for Fairtrade Fortnight. We are also preparing for the new Spring/Summer season and on Saturday 26th February are having a one day only sale when there will be a whopping 20% of all crafts. We will be open from 10-1 that day.
During Fairtrade Fortnight we will be hosting several events.
We are very excited to be part of the first ever World Book Night on Saturday 5th March when one million books are being distributed free in the world's largest ever book giveaway. We will be giving away 48 copies of David Mitchell's 'Cloud Atlas'. Come and join us from 7p.m. for a glass of wine.
On Tuesday 8th March, Ken Mkangala, a macadamia nut producer from Malawi, is going to launch our new service - the Fairtrade Honesty Box Scheme - in Prestonpans Library.
Honesty Boxes have been popular in large workplaces for a long time. Mostly they consist of rather unhealthy snacks and decidedly non-fairly traded chocolate. We know that loads of people love our Fairtrade stock but can't always get to the shop in our opening hours. We have decided to trial a Fairtrade honesty box scheme in Prestonpans. The boxes with contain approximately £25-worth of stock and customers can leave money for their purchases in the box. The host organisation (usually within a public building) can choose from "Best Sellers", "Sweet Treats" or "Gift" ranges.
Our final FTF event is our Open Day on Saturday 12th March from 10-1. There will be a chance to sample some free Fairtrade food and take a look at crafts from the new range.
Finally, would you like to see "Welcome to Prestonpans - Fairtrade Town" signs? It really could happen! Please get in touch if you would like to join a steering group aimed at securing Fairtrade Town status for Prestonpans.
Fairtrade Events throughout East Lothian
26 Feb
10-1 - 20% off all craft, Small World Shop
Sat 5 Mar
7 p.m.-World Book Night event, Small World Shop
Tue 8 Mar
time to be confirmed- Launch of honesty box scheme, Prestonpans Library.
Wed 9 Mar
Fair Trade Conference, QMU. To register a free place please contact Nicola at the Scottish Fairtrade Forum (nicola.jamieson@sftf.org.uk)
Fri 11 Mar
10-12 Fairtrade Coffee Morning, ReMade, 147 North High Street Musselburgh in collaboration with the Green Gift Company
Sat 12 Mar
10-1 Open Day, Small World Shop, Prestonpans;
10-5 Supplier Day, Earth Matters, North Berwick
