Happy Birthday To Us!
Chesham celebrated its Fifth Birthday as a Fairtrade Town on the 27th March. Chesham4Fairtrade took over the Town Hall to hold its birthday party to which everyone was invited!
Proceedings were started by the Town Mayor, Cllr Justine Fulford and Paddy Mensah, Headteacher of a school in Brenu, western Ghana (both pictured above) and we were even visited by Cheryl Gillan MP. One of the highlights of the day was a livelink via the internet, sponsorsed by KCS Ltd., to a Fairtrade Co-operative so that we could discover first-hand the difference that Fairtrade is making to farmers in Ghana.
Like all good birthday parties, it was a family affair with story-telling by local story-teller Trevor Pilling and games for children, along with a Fairtrade cafe run by Amersham's Cafe Africa and stalls by local producers such as Chiltern Ridge the apple juice producers, Ethictrade and a Traidcraft stall.
A variety of interesting speakers participated in the day, including Hannah Tricks, a local student who visited Ghana last year and Sally Reith of Shared Interest.
There was free cake on offer, as the many visitors to the event helped to judge the Fairtrade Birthday Bake-Off. And, at the close of play, Chesham4Fairtrade's dedicated chairman Colin Cartwright had his head shaved and dyed with the Fairtrade symbol and raised over £200 for Fairtrade in the process.
A super Fairtrade cookery demonstration was given by Carol Maguire, with ingredients donated by Chesham Waitrose. She also baked a Fairtrade Birthday cake, sponsored by Brazils, that was auctioned off at the end of the day.
A great time was had by all, and the good turnout on a showery day showed the strength of local support for Fairtrade. Here's to the next five years!
Published: 31st March 2010