Celebrating A World Of Good

Greetings, this is our first North Fork blog! As a resident of the North Fork and having been born and raised in this area, I have seen it grow and change throughout the years.  We are very fortunate to live in such a beautiful place, surrounded by pristine beaches, vineyards and farms.  It isn't this way in every place around our world.  Although some areas of the world are developing, there is still more global poverty than ever before with even more resources available. One day as I was gardening in my front yard, something began to take root in my mind and heart that I could possibly do something to help. I would like to bring you good news that our non-profit, Sobornost For The World Foundation, has been making a difference world-wide to alleviate some of this global poverty since 2003.

'Sobornost' is a Russian word that means a community of love or a group with one heart-mind-soul working together for the good of others.  Since 2003, our Foundation has been supporting hundreds of children with an education and daily cooked meals in Kenya and Zambia, as well as promoting and selling fair trade products at the World Village Fair Trade Market in Hampton Bays.  It was because of a few statistics that tell us that almost half the population of the world is living on less than $2.00/US a day or that 14 million orphans were left in sub-Saharan Africa with no one to help them after the AIDS virus had struck, that we began working our two missions.  The enormous challenges we face today of unemployment, malnutrition, catastrophic events such as earthquakes, floods, fires, etc. all point us in one direction:  to think on a dime how to bring some relief. With an agenda like this, where does a person or an institution begin?   

All the members of Sobornost are Long Islanders, who began by doing what we could with what we had as parents, teachers, church/social workers, artists, musicians and business owners.  Seeing the suffering of people the world over, especially children, caused us to sacrifice some of our free time and a little of our personal funds to help those we could.  Good people helped us get started by giving us what they could as well.  One person was a generous North Fork attorney who spent time with us writing our mission statement and doing all he could as his gift. He often went beyond this and sent us donations.  Another person was a woman in Nassau County who freely gave us her skills as our first bookkeeper and kept us on track for paying bills.  She, too, did this freely for four years.  There was a North Fork artist who made several prints of her original artwork into cards or framed art to be used as a way to raise money for the orphans.  Then along came a person in Massapequa who was a CPA who patiently endured helping us file our Form 990 with the IRS.  As you might imagine, I am not a numbers person! This was not an easy task because we were operating two separate missions with two different types of accounting: 1) selling fair trade products in a retail environment with inventory, overhead and taxes; 2) implementing fundraisers to support the orphans in Africa.  I've since learned that donations and sales are two different worlds.

After almost nine years, I've learned that there is more good to celebrate in our world than what often makes the news.  For example, how does a retail operate five days a week, year round, with all volunteers who remain year after year? Don't they get volunteer fatigue?  These people are extraordinary members of our Foundation who give tirelessly because they know they are actually making a difference in the lives of real people everywhere.  They have busy lives with families and jobs, but they faithfully volunteer on their particular day every week at the World Village Fair Trade Market.  They live from as far away as Patchogue to living right around the corner.  One person I would like to tell you about is our present bookkeeper.  She is particularly skilled and detail-oriented as she navigates her way around Quick Books with 50 or more vendors, LIPA, monthly rent, interfacing a financial program with a point of sale program, quarterly NYS Sales Tax, annual IRS 990 filings, and does it all with a smile.  She, too, has a family and a day job, but finds the time to put the pieces of our financial puzzle together because she wants to do what she can to keep the missions going.

There are many good organizations today doing exactly what we have been doing, but in a way that works well for them.  We want to invite you to come take a look at our work in fair trade at the World Village Fair Trade Market, because it is right here on the East End of Long Island.  Up until this past November, we were the only 100% fair trade store on Long Island, but now there is another store in Stony Brook called "Fair Trade Winds."  In my next blog, I will write about how the fair trade movement is developing here and in our country. It is our hope to one day have a North Fork fair trade store, but that will depend on whether we can find a location and rental that is affordable. We do what we can with what we have.  Like Gandhi said, "You must be the change you want to see in the world."  If you want to help us in any way, you can contact us at any of the following:

Sobornost For The World Foundation, Inc., 101 W. Montauk Highway, Suite 4, Hamlet Green, Hampton Bays, NY  11946; World Village Fair Trade (same address) Store Hours are: Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon, Wed, Thurs, Fri & Sat - Closed Sun & Tues; on Twitter @Fairtrading or @Sobornost; on Facebook at Pattye Pece or World Village Fair Trade.  631-728-7880.