North East update by Ruth Taylor

I hope many of you enjoyed Fairtrade Fortnight, especially our ambassador challenges!

For the Shared Interest team the fortnight was just as hectic as we expected, but great fun. It was a good opportunity for me to meet many of you for the first time. Thanks to Margaret Dobson, Patsy Howe and Pat Wallace who ran a Shared Interest stall at Sunderland library. I also had the opportunity to meet Tracy Mitchell at the Scottish Fairtrade Forum’s reception in Edinburgh where I enjoyed Fairtrade wine tasting and sampled local haggis.

The Fair Trade Fair at Leeds University was a well attended event. We were exhibiting in the main library building with students and members of the public passing through to hear more about fair trade. I tried Ubuntu Fairtrade cola and Sue Osborne kindly sent through a link on how to find the nearest retailer http://www.ubuntu-trading.com/where-to-buy. Also, thanks to Elsa Fairbanks for coming along on the day.

Shared Interest participated in the Carlisle Fairtrade Business Conference hosted by George Alagiah by having two separate stalls – one promoting Shared Interest and one to reflect our position on the Hadrian’s Wall Fairtrade Campaign steering group. It was great to have George Alagiah there to raise the profile of Fairtrade and to urge local businesses to become Fairtrade places of work. Thank you to Shared Interest Ambassador Peter Strong who helped us with our stall on the day.

The highlight of the second week for me was the Bolton Fairtrade Extravaganza which saw over 1500 schoolchildren from the local area attend the Bolton FC Stadium to partake in Fairtrade fun. We were also at the evening market place exhibiting alongside local businesses.

Already my calendar is filling with up-coming events! Please check our blog regularly so you can see when we are next in your area.

I hope to meet many more of you at the AGM on the 21st.