The Catholic Community of Christ Our Light will host its 10th annual Fair Trade Festival at the Resurrection Catholic School gym on the weekend. Opening on Saturday, November 23 and continuing into the following Sunday, the festival will be open to visitors starting from 8 am on both days.

This year, the trade festival will feature 19 participating vendors representing areas around the world such as Guatemala, Egypt, Korea, and Vietnam. Not only does the festival hope to shed light on the idea of fair trade-a form of trade devoted to providing livable wages for producers around the world-proceeds from the event will go towards benefiting those in need. Specifically, the parish is planning to direct this year’s earnings down to the Bahamas to support schools demolished by Hurricane Dorian the previous September.

“For the past ten years we have been able to increase the number of people we can help,” said Betty Atkins, a representative of the fair trade festival. “Fair trade is an effort to help our brothers and sisters across the world.”

On its first year, the parish had only found three vendors that were willing to participate. Now, the community expresses its gratefulness as the festival continues to expand in popularity.

“We expect the vendors to have fair trade certification because this gives us comfort in knowing that the intention is to give dignity to the worker,” Atkins noted. Ensuring that the vendors will be able to take pride in their creations brings an authenticity and diversity into the festival, which visitors consider one of the many perks to the event. Additionally, vendors are encouraged to use recycled materials in their products as often as possible.

“One example is that the artisans of Haiti use old steel drums to make beautiful artwork for your walls,” Atkins added. “It’s important to make sure that you’re not burdening the environment in the process.”

Although the parish offers fair trade coffee, tea, chocolate, and olive oil year-round, Atkins stresses that the Christmas season is an especially important time for the vendors.

“Christmas time is our big event,” she said. “We get an opportunity to give twice; we give to our global sisters and brothers and we give to our immediate family and friends.”

However, no matter what time of the year the festival unravels, its message always rings true: to honor every culture, background, and person.