The United Church of Chapel Hill will host its 36th Alternative Gift Market on Saturday, November 22nd from 9AM to 3PM and Sunday, November 23rd from 10AM to 1PM. This two-day, annual event supports Church World Service initiatives and encourages buying thoughtful gifts that give twice.
Begun as a means to raise funds for The Heifer Project, The Alternative Gift Market has hosted over 60 non-profit and international organizations to provide more than half a million dollars to Church World Service and other NGOs in the past four decades. Items are sold to be gifted to family and friends while the non-profit benefits from sales to support people in need.
Richard Edens is a former Pastor of United Church of Chapel Hill and helped coordinate the first market. He shared that “it was way of making available a lot of fair-traded items and [also] allowing people with various missions throughout the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community to have a table and find a way of promoting what they were doing but also to sell some item that somebody could use as a gift.”
Cathy Gomes is the founder of 700 Rivers, a long-time vendor creating personal care products whose sales support women worldwide. “All of our soaps are handcrafted by artisans who have overcome human trafficking, and now we’re able to ensure them with dignified careers, and fair living wages for their work in a safe work environment. We’re able to employ 22 women to handcraft all of our soaps.”
Gomes illustrates how the impact of each purchase goes far beyond providing fair wages to employees for their work, “what’s really special about it is that we partner with a fair-trade organization that helps these women who have escaped human trafficking, supports them with mental health counseling as they work to overcome their trauma, and then supports them by becoming financially stable by learning new job skills.”
More than 35 organizations and missions are participating in this year’s Alternative Gift Market, amongst them:
- B3: A private, non-profit agency committed to the neuro-diverse adults will be selling coffee and other beverages. Maybe you’ve had their coffee at the Chapel Hill Library.
- Orange / Alamance Prison Ministry: Selling pecans to support its ongoing ministry
- Go Conscious Earth: All sales and donations support forest-dependent communities to protect their Congo Basin Rainforest, preserve endangered species, including endemic bonobos, and support global climate stability.
- Joyas for Joy: Jewelry donated by church members will be sold to support music scholarships.
- Church World Service: Gifts of aid that provide support for disaster recovery here and world-wide.
- World Crafts: Multiple fair trade-minded organizations will be selling holiday season world craft gifts, including: Beans ‘N’ Sprouts, Lil’ Latte Quilts, Josh’s Hope, 700 Rivers, and local arts and craft creators.
- Also featuring a bake sale, poinsettias, delicious food, goods supporting Palestine, and much more.
“When you buy a gift what you’re spending on that gift is going back to a local mission, sometimes it’s an international mission, but it’s doing good in the community and in the world, as well as being a gift for someone you love,” Edens explained. “It’s just a lot a fun, and I certainly recommend it for your Holiday shopping.”
The 36th Alternative Gift Market runs Saturday, November 22nd and Sunday, November 23rd at United Church of Chapel Hill and is a great place to shop for gifts that give twice. Find more information at unitedchurch.org/market.
About United Church of Chapel Hill:
The congregation of United Church of Chapel Hill is a community of people from diverse religious traditions; from that diversity comes much of its richness and strength. A member church of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a distinct and diverse community of Christians that come together as one church to join faith and action. In keeping with the heritage and policy of the United Church of Christ, United Church of Chapel Hill is a congregational church, governed by the will of the congregation through elected governing boards that establish and supervise the policies and programs.
