Queensland Fair Trade Collective

The Fair Trade Christmas Market is on this weekend, and we want to say a big thank you to the generous donors to our raffle for Alola Foundation and their 'Readers for Timor' project to supply early-reader books for Timorese children. We have been blown-away by the generosity of the donations we've received, and we feel very confident that we are going to beat our previous fund-raising records with this raffle.

Antonietta's Photographics

• Antonietta’s Photographics who have donated 10 vouchers for one session and one 8×12” enlargement valued at $400 each, and
• Ten Toes Yoga who have donated three five class passes valued at $85 each.
• Queensland Tennis Centre who are donating tennis lessons and free passes for all attendees

Thank you to the interstate Fair Trade businesses who have sent donations:

• Alter Eco who are sending Fairtrade foods, 6 Dark Quinoa and 6 Dark Velvet chocolate bars, 2 Coral Jasmine Rice bags, 2 unrefined cane sugar bags from Philippines and 1 Pearl Quinoa Royal bags from Bolivia.
• Eternal Creation who are donating vouchers for Fair Trade kidswear.
• Heart of Chocolate who are donating delicious Fairtrade chocolate.
• My Fair Ladybird who are donating bundles of beautiful postcards

Finally, thank you to our stallholders who are also donating to the raffle. We are grateful for such fantastic group of businesses, who not only donate to our charity fund-raisers, but also donate time and effort to helping organise the market, set-up and pull-down the venue, and promote the event through their networks. There would be no market without you!

• Carpets for Communities a 70 cm plush mat
• Fair Trade Connections wrapping paper and cards
• Kwetu Handmade hand-carved salad servers
• Moselle a tote and men's shirt
• One Colour a Kikoi, jewellery, and christmas decorations
• Operation Uganda hand rolled paper beads
• Oxfam Shop a Fairtrade commodies hamper including coffees and chocolates
• Made in the Andes: a nativity decoration carved and decorated from a gore pumpkin
• Playing Fair Allo hemp children's slippers
• The Dharma Door one small book bag, one large book bag, one jute shopper, and one journal
• The Trading Circle a Fair Trade products hamper
• XS Project / Luminaide messenger bag

The Queensland Tennis Centre at Tennyson may be most famous for hosting the annual Brisbane International tournament each January, but did you know the centre is actually open every day for the public to use?

Boasting 23 international standard courts and a great team of friendly and qualified coaches, the centre offers private and group coaching, tennis fixtures, social tennis activities and general court hire for people of all ages and skill levels.

The Queensland Tennis Centre, which first opened in January 2009, was established, in part, to help address the issue of a shortage of tennis courts across the state's south-east corner.

Since first opening its doors, the Queensland Tennis Centre has built a solid customer base of tennis players from a diverse range of ages, backgrounds and abilities. By playing an instrumental role in increasing tennis participation in the state, the Queensland Tennis Centre has also, in turn, positively contributed to the health and wellbeing of the local community by promoting physical activity through the wonderful game of tennis.

The Queensland Tennis Centre is a proud supporter of the Fair Trade Christmas Market through its involvement as a hamper prize donor.

www.queenslandtenniscentre.com.au

Fair Trade Connections is a small Fair-Trade business operating from Maleny, Queensland. As well as an online store we have a stall at our local community markets where we serve fair trade organic coffee at "Our little Fair Trade Cafe", each Sunday. We also sell our range of Fair Trade handmade items there. We also attend Fair Trade Markets Days in Brisbane as often as we can.

We have regular customers each week coming in for our coffee and Maleny being on the tourist trail brings many people to the market who are thrilled to find a fair trade stall. It has taken me 2 years to get the right mix of products to sell and I am really thrilled with how the business has developed.

We are also really excited to have some Australian Aboriginal items on our stall now. We have beautiful aboriginal design cards from Better World Arts and books from Cherbourg Indigenous School literacy program. We'll be bringing all this and more to this years Fair Trade Christmas Market.

Find out more at the Fair Trade Connections website or meet Jenny and Noel in person at The Maleny Markets.

Today Kristin from The Giving Tree talks to us about what inspired her to create her Fair Trade business.

To begin with, please tell us a little bit about your business.

We're The Giving Tree, we sell certified Fair Trade accessories to both wholesale and retail customers.

What inspired you to take the direction you've taken?

Travelling through Asia in 04/05 I was really excited to see landmine victims being given a future through sewing, a passion of mine. It made me want to also produce products that impacted the artists life so strongly.

Was there a turning point that made you take that leap into starting your business?

Working in mainstream retail, I became dissatisfied with the selfish nature of the industry and wanted to be involved with something that really cared about people in every stage of the production. I was excited to have the opportunity to build into something bigger and greater.

What is in your music player right now? No cheating!

ABC's 50 top Toddler Songs to song along to.

Being a new Mum will do that to you! So what was the last Ethical Product you purchased and what do you love about it?

A singlet from One Colour, it's really soft and nice and thick.

What are your aspirations for the future of your business?

We're really excited about the future and looking forward to designing our own complete range of bags and accessories. We love trawlling through images from wide ranges of history, fashion and architecture for inspiration.

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, and we look forward to seeing you at the Fair Trade Christmas Markets!

Find out more at The Giving Tree website.