Pennies from Heaven Make a Difference in Fighting World Poverty

Each month we try to feature some aspect of our Foundation and its two missions. So far we've covered what we do in the World Village Fair Trade Market in Hampton Bays, NY, to support and sell fair trade products and why this helps producer groups worldwide to stay out of extreme poverty.  We've covered the mission of supporting orphans in Kenya and Zambia and why we chose to start there with some of the 14 million orphans left from the AIDS virus in sub-Sahara Africa. We've talked a little about how volunteerism works with us and why we chose to make our Foundation 100% volunteer.  Today I want to share with you what happens behind the scenes to keep us moving forward each day.

We began with nothing.  There was no benefactor or philanthropist, no Master's Degree in Business Administration, or commercial real estate options.  There were no blueprints for what we were about to embark on nor were there any five year strategic management plans.  Everything began with one person saying his or her "yes" to a particular request.  "Can you help us start a non-profit," I asked the attorney, and he answered, "Yes, what do you want to do?"  Then there was my question to an ex-Peace Corps teacher, "Would you like to help me begin a mission in Africa to help orphans?"  She answered, "Yes, that's what I have always wanted to do."  One day I was standing out in front of the Patchogue Theatre and I saw a woman I knew from a dance studio where my daughter took ballet lessons.  One part of me wanted to engage her in a dialogue about Hampton Bays and see if she thought it would be a good place to begin this Foundation.  The other part of me was afraid she would think I was a dreamer, but something propelled me to catch her eye and ask her what she thought of the ideas I had on my mind anyway.  She was very keen that this idea would work and she encouraged me by adding she would volunteer in it as soon as it began.  She now is the store manager nine years later.

These were the early days when we were trying to find our way.  Time passed by, the little store opened up in January 2003 and a few volunteers jumped right in to get it off the ground.  There was no ribbon-cutting ceremony or media attention, and we often found ourselves alone in the store for hours.  Not one person felt it was a waste of time.  Everyone went to do a particular day at the store even in the face of very few customers.  We all supported one another and continued along in faith that one day our mission to bring fair trade to Long Island would catch on. One day in 2006, we were overwhelmed with customers because of a full page article in the New York Times.  It was a day I will never forget because we had one of our senior citizens working in the store that day and when she arrived to open the door, there was a line that had formed with people just waiting to get in!  Her words to me were, "They cleared all the shelves!"  It seemed that people just came in and bought everything they could get their hands on.  It was an amazing day and she did an amazing job keeping up with it!

The sad thing about that New York Times article was that people came, they saw and they shopped but they didn't understand what our mission in fair trade was all about.  If they had understood, they would have continued to shop because they would have known that it was helping to sustain peoples' lives.  It reminds me of Thanksgiving and how we all rush to give our gift of a turkey with all the trimmings to the people who don't have food and then a day later, when we are shopping on Black Friday, we forget that they are still hungry.  Unfortunately, the poor are poor all year long.  One has only to call the Long Island Council of Churches' phone number to learn all the news about poverty on Long Island.  They are inundated with people needing everything, while, at the same time, State funds and donations are reduced.  Poverty is growing everywhere.

I have this thing about coins.  When I see a penny at my feet, I always pick it up because I believe it is a gift from an angel for the orphans.  It is very symbolic of how I think: every penny counts.  No donation is too small.  We have a jar on the counter with a picture of our orphans on it and every week people put their change in it.  One day I added up all the change we deposited over a four-year period and it amounted to $2,600!  Day-by-day, penny-by-penny, we pick up our shovel and do what we can to help our orphans.  A faithful friend I have known for years, regularly leaves a ziplock bag on my back porch filled with whatever coins he has managed to save for us.  Whenever I see that bag sitting there on the table, I always smile and think, "This is a person who understands that it's not how much we give, but THAT WE GIVE."  It always touches my heart!