6th Annual Alternative Gift Fair
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - On Saturday, December 5 from 1-7 pm the Williams College Students for Social Justice group will be holding their 6th Annual Alternative Gift Fair in the Sanctuary of the First Congregational Church of Williamstown.The Alternative Gift Fair is an opportunity to shop for socially responsible holiday gifts from local, regional, and national fair trade and non-profit organizations. Products will include handcrafts from around the world, local food products, and charitable and environmental gifts. Each year, Students for Social Justice, a student organization at Williams College, coordinates with local and international non-profits as well as local houses of worship to share their products, ideas, and programs with enthusiastic visitors, who come to learn and buy justice-oriented gifts for the holidays! Most proceeds support various non-profits, and the remainder go to environmentally and socially responsible businesses.
2009 vendors include: Wild Oats Food Co-Op, selling various health food products, the Women's Peace Collection selling products made by women around the world, the Sudan Relief Task Force selling Sudanese Lentil Soup mix, Greylock ABC selling beautiful floral cards, baskets made in Malawi, a beading table, and products from Kenya. We will also have information tables for organizations including Casa Materna, a women's health organization in Nicaragua; Parikrna, a school for children living in the slums in Bangalore; Milana, an HIV support organization for women in Bangalore; Heifer Project, and many more!
The First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, is located at 906 Main Street (Rt. 2) in Williamstown, MA. The church is fully handicap accessible. Parking is available immediately behind the church off of Chapin Hall Drive. For more information contact the Church Office at 413-458-4273 or Office@firstchurchwilliamstown.org.
Students for Social Justice is a student activist group at Williams College whose main goal is to raise awareness on campus and in the community about different forms of social injustice in the United States and around the world while providing people with ideas of how they can work for peace, equality and understanding in their own lives. As activists, they conduct demonstrations on campus and organize dinner discussions where professors have a chance to speak with students outside of class about social justice in their fields of expertise.
They also hold annual events such as the Hunger Banquet and the Alternative Gift Fair, urging members of the community to appreciate their privilege and consider the responsibility they have to the rest of humanity. They are always eager to work on new projects whether they concern human rights, health, education, poverty, the environment, foreign policy or any other area where people struggle for social justice. For more information, please email 10lck@williams.edu.
