Hey Mid-Atlantic!

I hope you are well into your way for a rocking year of making trade fair. We've got a lot of amazing events going on in our region for Fair Trade month and beyond. I encourage you all to continue to submit any Fair Trade events your school or community is putting on and we will put them up here.

Send us pictures and reports back from your events and we'd be happy to publish them on the web site! Only through collaboration can we truly grow this movement. I hope that this will be the year that we all start working together in our region to not only bring in more Fair Trade certified products into our schools and communities, but to lay the foundation for future regional and national campaigns to come.

One exciting collaborative event on a DC-scale is that for the first time Catholic University, American University, Georgetown University and George Washington University are working together to produce a DC-wide event on October 17 with Ghanaian cocoa farmers. (If you're in the area, check out "A Taste of Justice" on the Mid-Atlantic events calendar!)

What makes United Students for Fair Trade unique is that we are truly a GRASSROOTS organization! Campaigns are designed and implemented from the campus level and you'll never have us dictating to you what issue area you should be focusing on. You know your campus' its culture and its needs better than any of us on the steering committee do. The collaboration among DC schools would not have happened if all the different campuses weren't interested in making it happen. Coalitions and integration can't be forced, but the seeds for them can be sewn as they have been over the years in DC through contact and communication with fellow Fair Traders at other schools.

So, how can you meet other Fair Trade activists in your region to begin your own collaborative events? Attend the Northeaster/Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference November 9-12 in New York City! Entitled “Strengthening the Roots" this conference is all about YOU and how you can affect change on your campus, in your cities, regionally and nationally. By attending you will build your leadership and organizing skill sets; learn more about fair trade; learn to recognize and confront oppression within our own groups, the Fair Trade movement and society as a whole; and best of all, you will network, brainstorm and lay the foundation for regional and national campaigns!

As your regional organizer I am here to assist you in obtaining resources, contacts and information about the Fair Trade movement. I'm here to help coordinate these strategic regional collaborations, but the demand must come from the grassroots! As many of you have benefited from the regional break-outs at the International Convergences in past years and told us you wished you had more time to plan within your own region we've decided to put on regional conferences this year to do just that.

Please e-mail me with any questions, comments or suggestions at Christina.Lizzi@gmail.com

I look forward to a successful year of learning, growing, and making trade fair!

Christina Lizzi