Fair Trade Sold At Church Fair

Among the tents at the 100th Annual First Presbyterian Church of Amagansett Fair, one small booth labelled "Mission Fair Trade" stood out among the petting zoo, games, raffles, books and vintage items.

The table was manned by former pastor Rev. Robert Stuart, Deacon Patricia Field and Nancy Howarth, wife of the current pastor Rev. Steven Howarth. Howarth went on to explain the idea's genesis: "My husband and I wanted to go further in helping the sorts of charities we serve," she said.

The Fair Trade booth sells products from SERRV International, a non-profit fair trade organization that specializes in bringing handmade crafts from poorer countries to America, while ensuring that it is the workers themselves who profit from the sales rather than a corporation, factory or middle manager. Among the objects being sold were wind chimes, bird houses, baskets, ornaments, jewelry and musical instruments. The church itself takes only 10% of the sale, and all objects sold are on consignment from SERRV. "This is our little piece of mission," Howarth said.

"We're thinking about people in other countries who haven't been given the incredible wealth and prosperity that we have here," she said.

Though it was the booth's first year in service, it was already doing quite well. By 11:30 around half of its original contents had already been sold.