Global Village Gifts is marking its 19th year on November 7, 2022. We are celebrating milestones of growth with our volunteers, our vendors, our artisans, and our community outreach. We are immensely grateful for and humbled by how far we have come and for the people who make our mission possible.
Where We Started
Global Village Gifts opened its doors on November 7, 2003. The shop’s founder, Sally Keller, a volunteer manager of Ten Thousand Villages, wanted to help people and make a difference. In 1994 she received a unique gift from her sister-in-law: a latrine in Nepal bought under her name. This, coupled with her experiences in Africa with her daughter engaging with local Fair Trade artisans, gave her a passion for Fair Trade and the idea to bring a Fair Trade shop to Logan. At 71 years old, Sally opened the shop as an entity of Ten Thousand Villages and Julie Barker soon joined her in this endeavor. Two years later it began running independently under a new name: Global Village Gifts.
As the store has grown in popularity, it has moved through three different locations and is currently settled at 53 East 100 North in Logan. This location opened in 2019 and has given the store more visibility, greater foot traffic, and a greater presence in downtown Logan.
The shop opened with two main goals that it maintains to this day - to support artisans in developing countries and to teach the local community about Fair Trade. We have seen amazing growth in the store, our volunteers, the products we offer, and the artisans we are able to support.
How We Bring Our Mission To Life
We support artisans around the world by purchasing their goods and products at a fair price and selling them in our storefront. The practice of Fair Trade ensures that these artisans are paid a fair wage for their products and ensures adherence to child labor laws. This helps these artisans to provide for themselves, educate their children, and improve their communities. It helps them live with dignity because individuals who contribute financially to the family are more highly regarded in their society. This also creates a rippling effect on the next generation who grow up learning how to support themselves. The store currently supports 29 vendors from 48 countries and has over 1,500 products available.
We are dedicated to teaching our local community about the principles of Fair Trade. When you first walk into our colorful shop, a volunteer greets you and asks if you’re familiar with the store. They’ll share the store’s mission and talk about the basics of Fair Trade . We also engage with the community through our monthly newsletters, social media accounts, our website, and community events such as the recent Gallery Walk, Vanilla Bean Class with Sara Anderson, and Nativity Night.
Volunteers Are Our Lifeblood
As a fully non-profit organization, our volunteers are critical to the success of the store and our mission. Our volunteers manage the storefront, greet and interact with customers, and teach the public about Fair Trade. Our operation is currently run by over 30 volunteers and volunteer coordinators. So far this year we've logged 660 volunteer hours and have trained 8 new volunteers. We are immensely grateful for the time and energy they have contributed to the success of the store in the last 19 years. We want to thank our outstanding volunteers for their work and for their many years of contributing to our cause.
Thank You For Shopping With Us
We love our customers for supporting our mission by shopping locally and ethically. Each person who makes a purchase at our store makes a difference.
If you’ve never been in our store before, we encourage you to come and give alternative shopping a try! You’ll find shelves of beautiful, unique, and colorful handmade items from around the world including jewelry, cards, books, scarfs, woven baskets, soaps, children’s toys, coffee, chocolate, and other one-of-a-kind goods. With the upcoming Christmas season, it is also a great place to find a unique gift while also making a difference.
Thank you for your support over the last incredible 19 years. We look forward to the years to come!
Looking Forward To The Future
We are incredibly thankful for where we have been over the last 19 years and for the growth we have seen. We are humbled by the lives we have been able to reach and for the support of the people who have made all this possible. We are enthusiastic as we look toward the coming years and hope to continue to grow and make a difference!
Thank you!
Article written by Nicole Simmons