On December 5, 2003 Muhlenberg played host to a Ten Thousand Villages Fair Trade Sale in a successful effort to promote the campus wide theme of sustainability. The sale was chaired by a group of five students, three from Gail Eisenberg’s Marketing For Not for Profit Organizations class and two outstanding volunteers from the Community Outreach Center. The team, Brendon McKeown, Jeff Slotterback, Jackie Gerard, Amanda Kokie and Amanda Ibey worked all semester long promoting the sale by educating the Muhlenberg community about sustainability and the Ten Thousand Villages organization.
Ten Thousand Villages is a non-profit organization that works with artisans from over 30 Third World Countries, to provide them with vital, fair income by marketing their handicrafts in North America. The organization offers a 50% advance in payment as operating capital to the artisans and then pays them in full when an order is shipped.
At the first sale, the team was able to generate over $10,000 for Ten Thousand Villages (three times their initial goal) and donate over $800 to Village Banking. Due to the great success of the first sale, Ten Thousand Villages was brought back to Muhlenberg for the MACLAS conference in February. The sale took place in Moyer Hall and featured products from Latin American countries including Mexico, Chile, and Peru. The final outcome of that sale was also very impressive in that the same team was able to generate $1,150 for Ten Thousand Villages.
Both sales were outstanding as well as great learning experiences. It was a pleasure to make such a large impact on Muhlenberg’s theme of sustainability and I thank all who helped and purchased items at the sales. You truly supported an excellent cause!

Jackie Gerard ‘04