BALLE in the Gorge!

This week, Becky Brun, editor of Sustainable Industries magazine and Hood River resident, is presenting the possibility of establishing a BALLE Network in the Gorge to the Downtown Business Association! Becky, along with a group of local, independent business owners has been exploring the logistics of forming a local chapter of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) for the past several months.

What the heck is BALLE, you ask?

BALLE has more than 80 chapters throughout the country (including 2 in Oregon and 6 in Washington), representing 21,000 independent business owners. Each chapter has its own unique characteristics and goals, but they are all focused on helping strengthen local economies while preserving the ecosystem on which they depend for raw materials, employees, clients and more.

As the co-owner of a local small business guided by principles of economic and ecological sustainability we've often felt like salmon swimming upstream - traversing the direction we must go but often wondering why it has to be so hard. BALLE aims to support small business on the journey to increased outreach, innovation, and local connection. We fully support the opportunity to create a BALLE chapter in the Gorge. Establishing a structure for collaborating with other independently run businesses on issues of sustainability, education and marketing, and long-term community vibrancy would be an amazing opportunity that would benefit all local residents!

Becky is currently forming a Steering Committee, which will help determine the geographic focus of the organization, its initial goals, its membership structure, and more. If you are interested in learning more, email Becky at becky@sustainableindustries.com.

Stay tuned for an update this Spring!

Karen

Love and Retail

Love and Valentine’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Love—For the last few weeks I’ve been bombarded with a wide variety of thoughts on the upcoming holiday: Friends on Facebook feeling lonely or sad this season. Grade school age boys at home making 24 valentine’s cards to share at school, complete with traced hearts and barely legible names. My middle school aged son carefully making a duct tape rose for his first sweetheart. My Auntie’s emails organizing a family dinner of extended cousins, just a few of the descendants of my great-grandmother Goldie Valentine Huffington Hattenhauer, to remember Grandma on her birthday. And of course, red and pink hearts everywhere I turn.

Growing up with a great-grandmother who had Valentine’s Day as her birthday and a mother who taught grade school and loved all things holiday—Valentine’s Day for me is a sweet, family affair of a day. I enjoy continuing the traditions with my kids and seeing cousins I wish I kept in better contact with throughout the year.

Now as a retailer, I also have to see Valentine’s Day as a way to get the February bills paid. Yep, I need people to shop—and so you’ll find a Valentine’s Day display right in the entrance to Small Planet and red and pink strategically placed throughout the shop. We even have a chocolate sale going on this week. The constant pull in my psyche of wanting to help people live lighter and easier on the earth, and frankly needing them to spend money to be able to keep going can leave me feeling ambivalent about holidays all year round.

So what’s a reluctant retailer to do? Well, at Small Planet Trading we make it a practice not to buy things just because they are for a holiday—you won’t find things in the shop this week that we wouldn’t be willing to stock year round. The Good Clean Love oils make a sexy gift for that special day, but also can increase sexual health all year through. Kisii soapstone hearts from Kenya, Olivewood hearts from Bethlehem, heart earrings from Honduras are each lovingly handcrafted by an artist who benefits from you enjoying their work any day of the year.
 
Come in on Saturday and get creative on our DIY card table-- if you've never made yourself a Valentine's Day card, maybe it's a good year to start.  Not giving any gifts this particular holiday, don't worry, you can still pick up a new toothbrush or enjoy some Spicy Hot Cocoa on a cold February day.

--DeLona

Helping Haiti

I wanted to write this the day after the earthquake, but I just keep reading all of the amazing accounts from Haiti and know I don't have anything to add.  But because many people have been asking-- here are a few ways to help.

These are just 3 of the many organizations already on the ground in Haiti.  They were in Haiti doing amazing work before the crisis, they are now responding to the emergency, but they will also be there long term.

Planting Peace

Partners in Health

Mennonite Central Committee

Don't worry if you can't donate right now-- the need will be there for many days to come.  Stay tuned with the Small Planet Trading newsletter for when we host a fundraising event. --DeLona

Update-- Feb. 1st
Since posting I've gotten word of two other groups doing their part.

Our wonderful neighbor Cutie Pie Consignment will donate at least 10% off all February sales to Haiti.  Individual consignors may add some of their sale prices as well, so the donation on an item could be as much at 65%.

Check out these amazing midwives in Bali who helped after the Indonesian Tsunami and are now in Haiti   http://www.bumisehatbali.org/

Birth Stories

      Like many people who are self-employed and own their own business DeLona and I both have other jobs and sources of income to supplement our work with Small Planet.  DeLona, among other things is  a certified Doula, or birth coach.   She is an amazing support and advocate for local birthing moms.  This weekend is the Gorge Birth Weekend at the Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River. Friday & Saturday nights there will be a free viewing of the movie, The Business of Being Born and all day Saturday free workshops on a topics such as Childbirth Choices and Newborn News & Baby Planning.  
      As we coordinate work schedules at the shop for DeLona to attend the event I can't help but reminisce a moment on the birth stories of my own two boys.  Diego, was born 10 years ago at the local birth center.  His father, my parents, DeLona as my doula,  and my midwife were all present and I needed every single one of them for his slow but steady birth.  I remember the desire to escape from my body and  visualized being as far away as possible on a mountaintop.  Julio, now 4, was born at home on a rainy night - so rainy that my midwife traveling from Portland missed his arrival.  He was 3 weeks early and came quickly.  Most of the household slept though it.  Thankfully DeLona was there to assist.   Familiar with the sensations, this time around I planned a birthing tub, prepared with meditation and instead of escaping went inside.  
      Some say that your birth story defines you early on.  I believe there are many influences and experiences that define us at every stage of life - some we choose, some we don't, some we grow out of or grow into, and many we create for ourselves.  It is true that Diego is my even keeled, take his time, steady as a rock child and Julio is my anything goes, sweet and stormy, wild card child.  I myself was born in the era of hospital nurseries where row upon row of babies were kept warm in little incubation beds and fathers were not allowed in the delivery room.   I've been told I was a most expressive and determined baby - crying the loudest and the longest for my mom so that the nurses got in the habit of delivering me to my food source first and picking me up last.    Somehow those traits of determined recognition of what I needed and going after it did not stay with me into childhood and early adulthood.  Now in my 4th decade I'm thinking this is the perfect time to take that persona back as I move into a new era of growing into my power and moving forward.

Karen

How are you doing?

How are you doing?  That's a question we get a lot this time of year.  People wonder will Small Planet Trading be here after another winter?  Will it simply not make it like a few other favorite stores in town?  It's not always an easy question to answer.

We absolutely love bringing Fair Trade to the Gorge.  Finding products made so lovingly with the earth and it's people in mind makes our hearts sing.  Having the privilege of getting to know so many people who really care about how they spend their money, what vision of the future they support and how they affect their community is humbling, exciting and just plain fun.

We've always been committed to a simple business model that supports our community, artists near and far, and ourselves.  It is not the easiest way to do business.  It is not a model that generates fast growth.

Life has many interesting twists, and when we first opened for a holiday season, with a small seed investment and a shared space-- we had no idea how many turns life would take for the store, for each of us personally and for the wider community.

All the conventional business advice we get is the same-- we are underfunded and should either call it quits or borrow money against our house.  We've never been much for conventionality, so we continue to search for our own way.

Many people tell us how they enjoy doing their holiday shopping with us.  We love that too-- but it does not sustain us the rest of the year.  Tourism helps, but we aren't in the busiest tourist spot.  So what do we do?  We try and stock items that our loyal friends need regularly.  We look for items that are useful as well as unique.  We partner with local artists.  We keep our costs exceedingly low.  We stretch our creativity.

And yet we still are not sustainable enough for even one full time person to be paid at minimum wage.

Where does that leave us at this moment?  Having to make choices and decisions.  Not today, but through the winter.

First we'll be closing on Sundays so that we can enjoy a family day--it's been a while since we've had that on a regular basis.

Next we'll be dreaming and working on creative ways to collaborate with others to keep going.

Want to be part of the dreaming?  Have an idea to share?  Have energy to help keep Small Planet a reality?  Let us know, we're open to a new twist or two.  DeLona and Karen

Adventures in China

                                                                           

Those of you who are familiar with our shop know that we carry lovely pearl and jade necklaces from China.  We were originally connected with the artist through our good friend, Pamela Larson (top photo), who is currently living in China with her husband and two daughters.  Pamela recently sent us the email below.  It was such a lovely story from across the globe we thought we'd share it with you too!              

                          

Hello lovely ladies of Small Planet Trading,                                                              

   

I was so fortunate to have the most amazing experience. I work in an art group which meets in the private gallery of a famous Chinese sculptor, Xu Hongfei (wearing glasses in photo above). He invited us to join him for the weekend for an art installation in a 1000 year old village of the Chinese minority group, the Yao People (related to the mountain peoples of Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand)!!!! We went in a convoy 5 hours north to this village in the mountains. Four large trucks carried his over life-size sculptures! It was such a sight to see!

The village is very poor and the people live basically as they have for hundreds of years, except for the cell phones!  They dress day to day in traditional clothes and for the celebration, wear their special ceremonial clothes!  When we arrived, the men came to help carry the sculptures and place them around the village.  It was amazing to see these sculptures in their mountainous landscape with the ancient village!!!

My fellow art-friend from Germany and I were among the three foreigners there. The rest of the bus load of Xu Hongfei's friends and associates were Chinese, with many artsy-fartsy types, a camera crew making a documentary, and the local Gouangzhou News TV crew!  Many Chinese treat the minority people in a strange way, almost like zoo creatures.  They went up to them, indicated they wanted a photo, and then left.  No thank you, no connection.  Me, (being my shy self!), went up to the villagers with tons of questions in my bad Chinese, about their clothes, art, children.  It was great!  They were so warm and interested. Most of them had never seen a Westerner except on TV!!!!!  I was so inquisitive and friendly that I made many friends who then poured gifts on me!  These people live in poverty yet were so generous!!!  One woman, after discussing her gorgeous outfit, took it off and gave it to me!!!  She would not take anything in return!  She wanted to show that the Yao People are generous peaceful people!  Then a man I chatted with gave my the sacred swan feather out of his headdress!  I was floored!  I found the leader of the village and said I want to give something to his village.  I suggested money for the school.  He said that would be great since many of the desks are broken and they do not have enough paper, pencils, etc.  My German friend wanted to give to, so the next day the village leader introduced us to the headmaster of the school and we gave him roughly $60 US which to them is a fortune.  The TV crew got wind of this and came over and filmed us, a translator translated and it was quite a big deal!  

The next afternoon, all the villagers dressed in their special outfits and the govt. officials came, dances were performed, speeches were given.  It was a sight to behold!  It was amazing and I wanted to share this with you.  Here are a few photos to illustrate their outfits and the art of Xu Hongfei in the village.

This experience humbled me, as well as excited me and expanded my knowledge of the world.  

with love
pamela

Fair Trade Free Shipping!

Kick off the holidays Fair Trade style, make a purchase at our online shop between now and 12/6, use the coupon code KICKOFF and we'll give you Free Shipping!