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Bowness and Windermere - A Fairtrade Town.
This and subsequent pages have been produced on behalf of
the Windermere and Bowness Fairtrade Group as part of the Windermere & Bowness Chamber
of Trade's commitment to community information.
The Windermere and Bowness Chamber of
Trade are indebted to the Fairtrade Group for supplying the information
for this page.
Activities:
2014:
2009;
2007
First
Ten Years |
The Future |
Updates
Plaque Unveiling Ceremony
Tuesday the 5th May 2009 saw the unveiling
of a plaque on The Promenade, Bowness celebrating designating Bowness
and Windermere as a Fair Trade Town. The ceremony was attended by
the local MP, Tim Farron, together with a number of local dignitaries,
business people and members of the community.
This is the culmination of a lot of hard
work by local people dating back to 2005.
The plaque is illustrated in the above
banner.
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2014 Activities
On World
Fairtrade Day (May 10th), the Windermere and Bowness Fairtrade Town
Group held a coffee morning to celebrate 10 year's of the Group's work
in the community and the first awarding of the Fairtrade Town Status.
Cllr.
Allan Winrow, Mayor of Windermere and Bowness, kindly cut the
celebratory cake which was enjoyed by the many people who had come along
to help the group celebrate.
Allan
thanked the group for the work they had done to raise the
 profile
of Fairtrade in the community and the quality of their cakes! (Made with
many
Fairtrade
ingredients.)
There
was a lovely display of collages illustrating the Fairtrade theme which
had been made by the students at St Cuthbert's Primary School, Goodly
Dale Primary School
and The Windermere Preparatory School.
The
Photograph shows Jenny Baker the coordinator of the Fairtrade Group
sitting with the Mayor and joined by some of
the members of the Fairtrade Group. Allan thanked the group for the
work they had done to raise the profile of Fairtrade in the
community.
During March 2014, the Fairtrade Group
celebrated a successful "Fairtrade Fortnight" throughout the area.
It began with a Coffee morning at
Ambleside Parish Centre, part of the love Ambleside campaign
then a Sunday Stall at St Martin's Parish
Church, Bowness.
2 weeks of Fair Trade at St Mary's Church,
Windermere where a rota of church members manned a stall and spread the
Fairtrade message. The first Wednesday saw a stall at the
Ambleside Parish Centre and a coffee morning at Alexandra Court,
Windermere. A further coffee morning was held at the Gatesbield,
Quaker Church, Windermere.
There was a stall and many banana suits,
as worn by Cumbria University students in Ambleside on the middle
Saturday. Promotional material and a postcard
petition signing at Booths supermarket with banana suit and blow up
bananas.
Stalls and the banana petition were at the
Roman Catholic Church in Ambleside and at St Herbert's Windermere.
Joan Stocker gave a presentation at the
Carver Reform Church during the Morning Service and also to the town
council.
The fortnight ended with 3 days at the
Rotary Conference in Newcastle.
Christine took the promotional banana
posters into Windermere Primary School and a poster display was in
Windermere Library. Finally, stalls were again at the Ambleside Parish
Church and Brathay Church during the weekend of the 15th and 16th March.
Over £1,000 was banked through the day to
day takings from all the groups efforts.
The cash indicates the support and
interest in our area for Fair Trade.
If
you have signed petitions to post, you may give them to Joan Stocker or
Judith Bird who will send them off together to save postage.
Highlights of the first Ten
Years
Fairtrade Fortnight was a great success with local
schools taking part in making posters for competitions, cooking food
using Fairtrade ingredients and raising awareness in various other ways.
The local churches also raised awareness with their
Coffee Mornings and
the sale of Fairtrade products.
The local Fairtrade Group also had a Coffee Morning at
Beck Lodge with a raffle for a beautiful basket of Fairtrade fruit which
was kindly donated by the local Booths Supermarket. The coffee was
donated by Farrers of Kendal. The group were also 'blessed' to
have Elspeth and Alan Harman for this event and they gave several talks
and slide presentations, updating the information on the progress being
made by the Fairtrade Coffee Farmers in Choche.
The Windermere and Bowness Fairtrade Group had a great
deal of support for this event and feel encouraged that so many of our
local people feel so strongly about our less fortunate members
worldwide. We would like to thanks all those who gave up their
time to support us.
We have nearly sold all the Fairtrade Bags, produced for
us by a group of ladies in Bangladesh, so it's goodbye to plastic
shopping bags!
In conclusion the group continue to enthusiastically
promote Fairtrade products throughout Windermere and Bowness and are
constantly looking for new members.
Update of Activities
In September 2013 our Fairtrade status was
renewed with the support of the Windermere Town Council. We now
look forward to celebrating our tenth birthday in 2014.
Ten members of the Windermere & Bowness
Fairtrade Group manned a stall at the Windermere Air Show over the
weekend of the 28th/29th July 2007, talking to the public, distributing
leaflets and giving out samples of Fairtrade products which were kindly
donated by the Co-op shops in Bowness and Windermere.
During the summer term members of the
Fairtrade Group took assemblies in five local schools, all of whom are
now hoping to achieve Fairtrade status.
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Looking to The Future
The Fairtrade Group are now
writing to all local businesses to celebrate our renewed
status. and request their continued commitment to Fairtrade.
Look out for news of our tenth birthday celebrations!
2009 Activities
In October 2009 we were delighted to
welcome Bruce Crowther, from the Fairtrade Foundation, and friends on
their Fairtrade Walk from Garstang (the first Fairtrade town in the UK)
to Keswick.
Windermere & Bowness Fairtrade Group celebrated Fairtrade Fortnight with
a series of events, including several tea parties, with the aim of
encouraging people to swap to at least one Fairtrade product. On
Sunday, February 28th, members of the group, together with Peter Rabbit
and Bill Smith, Mayor of Windermere, gathered on Bowness Bay to promote
Fairtrade products. During the course of the afternoon we distributed
leaflets and samples, and talked to hundreds of locals and visitors.
One of our members regularly mans a Fairtrade Stall at local events,
where a wide range of Fairtrade products can be seen and purchased.
We are currently working on the 3rd Edition of our Fairtrade Directory
and plan to have it printed shortly for distribution from outlets around
the towns.
Don't forget to look out for the plaque proclaiming our status as a
Fairtrade town. You will find it in the flowerbed next to the zebra
crossing, facing the steamer quay.
Judy Baily - Windermere & Bowness
Fairtrade Group
Fairtrade Fortnight - 2007
Monday February 25th, start of exhibitions
of work centred around Fairtrade by pupils of Windermere and Goodly Dale
Junior Schools at the Bowness Bay Tourist Information Centre. These will
continue for at least 2 weeks.
Thursday March 1st, around 90 people
attended a coffee morning at Beck Lodge Troutbeck, which raised £127 for
Fairtrade funds. There were
displays of products from local stores, and presentations given by two
members of the Keswick Fairtrade Group, who had recently returned from Ethiopia
to visit Fairtrade coffee farmers and co-operatives in a remote region
in the south of the country.
Friday March 2nd, two
members of the Bowness & Windermere Fairtrade Group went to Elleray and St.
Anne's Schools to take an assembly and to meet pupils , teachers, and
parents.
 Saturday
3rd March, the Group hosted Samuel Magona a Fairtrade coffee farmer from
Uganda to a social evening at Beckside Bowness. Samuel told us at
first hand about the very big difference the Fairtrade social premium had made
to the local community. As well as getting piped water, a school
classroom had been built - attended now by children from four villages.
Villagers' homes had been improved with corrugated sheet roofs and the
coffee beans were now awarded 'organic status' and produced under
hygienic conditions.
All the posters and
poems from Goodly Dale and Windermere primary schools are now displayed
in the Windermere Library and Bowness Tourist Centre, in response to the
competition to illustrate the Fairtrade movement and its meaning.
Fair Trade in Bowness and Windermere
Fairtrade Shopping Bags
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