MIDDLESEX TWP — Shoppers looking for unusual jewelry, home decor, tablecloths, scarves, purses, soaps, baskets, seasonal items and more can find handmade items at reasonable prices while supporting the world’s impoverished people.

A Fair Trade Market will be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, at Holy Sepulcher School, 6515 Old Route 8 North.

Pat Shaffer, treasurer of the Patzún School Mission and a parishioner at Holy Sepulcher Roman Catholic Church, said every dime in proceeds benefits the school in Guatemala supported by the mission.

She explained that “fair trade” items are grown, produced or made in developing nations by Indigenous artisans who are paid a fair price for their crafts, coffee, soap or other handmade items.

Selling items to fair trade buyers helps lift families out of poverty, Shaffer explained.

Shaffer and mission member Gretchen DeLucia brought dozens of fair trade items they have purchased over the years to Holy Sepulcher Roman Catholic Church on Tuesday, Oct. 1, to display the quality and beauty of the items.

Handwoven scarves, a painted ceramic serving dish nestled inside a basket, a relaxed wooden giraffe that sits on a shelf or mantle, hand-carved and painted Nativity scene characters, colorful hand-stitched purses and wallets, and a plethora of other high-end artisan items graced the table in the church’s conference room.

“I think (the Indigenous artisans) like color because they live so poorly,” DeLucia said.

Shaffer said four fair trade buyers in the region will provide items for the sale at Holy Sepulcher school, and any unsold items can be returned to them.

The fair trade representatives get 85% of the sale’s proceeds, much of which is paid to the developing nations’ artisans.

The mission group keeps 15%, all of which is donated to the Patzún School in the Atitlán Highlands of Guatemala.

DeLucia said the school, which is operated by nuns, educates the children of Mayan families, who the Guatemalan government does not educate because they want them to perform labor on the country’s many farms.

“And because it’s a Catholic school, it also gives them faith,” she said.

Shaffer said many of the students have lost parents or other family members to violence, alcohol abuse or natural disasters.

She said in addition to funding the school regarding supplies and other necessities, the mission also provides 34 half scholarships to students at the Patzún School.

“We have provided computers in the past, and band instruments when they started a band program several years ago,” Shaffer said.

Shaffer has traveled to the school once, and DeLucia and her husband have been there four or five times with the mission, which started in 2009 and is a ministry of the St. Mark the Evangelist Parish.

Both women said the students, teachers and community members are always very excited to have visitors and enjoy smiling for pictures.

“This community is so poor, and our aim is to get these children through school so they can have professional careers and come back to support the people of Patzún and make their community a better place,” Shaffer said.

DeLucia said although their living conditions are very poor, the people of Patzún are always smiling.

“The surprise for me was the joy these people have, even though they don’t have much, materially,” she said. “They have to live their faith every day.”

DeLucia and her husband even attended a graduation ceremony at the school, to the delight of the students and their families.

“They were very appreciative and exuberant,” she said.

DeLucia said there is no comparison between Patzún and the United States.

“The children seem younger than our children here because there’s an innocence,” she said, “but the adults seem older because they’ve had to work so hard just to survive.”

She said watching the adults work the steep fields at the farms in the mountainous country is exhausting.

“But to them, it’s just part of everyday life,” DeLucia said.

Shaffer said the people from the mission who travel to Patzún always do some work while there, like painting, electrical work, or even replacing a roof that caved in atop the home of an elderly couple.

“We don’t go to observe,” she said. “We pitch in.”

Shaffer and DeLucia invite everyone looking for unique, handmade items that cannot be found in a department store or even online to come to the Fair Trade Market sale.

The women, plus others from the mission, will spend the evening before the market setting up the fair trade items at the school.

The items will be arranged on 17, 8-foot tables in the school cafeteria.

As an example of prices, DeLucia said jewelry ranges in price from $12 to $48, coffee is about $10 per pound.

“Baskets are very reasonable,” Shaffer said. “Once every sale, I get a tablecloth. I pay between $45 and $65.”

DeLucia said she thinks people anticipate the market each year to peruse the beautiful and unique items, but for another important reason too.

“I think people like to support fair trade because they know the artisans are sustaining their livelihood through these sales,” she said.

The sales normally net $3,000 to $3,500, Shaffer said.

The Rev. Charles Bober, pastor at Holy Sepulcher church, also appreciates the Fair Trade Market, which has been held there since 2009 except for at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s been an important part in the life of our parish,” Bober said. “It’s a way for us to reach out and support the poorest and most needy of our brothers and sisters.”