Handcrafts help Third World workers
ZELIENOPLE — Shoppers looking for unique and inexpensive gifts now have a venue in Zelienople, and their purchase will help better the lives of workers in Third World nations.
Sales Exchange Refugee Rehabilitation and Vocation, or SERRV International, has opened a shop inside the offices of the Beaver/Butler Presbytery on Main Street in Zelienople.
The store, manned by volunteers from area churches, is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday between March and December. The store is closed in January and February.
SERRV, a nonprofit trading organization, works with small-scale, cooperatively run producer groups to help promote social and economic progress in developing regions.
The items handcrafted in those regions include jewelry, ceramics, embroidered items, home and garden décor, baskets, birdhouses, puzzles and games, indigenous musical instruments and other eye-catching objects.
The Zelienople store offers about 300 different wares for the discriminating shopper to peruse. All items sell for $35 or less.
Irma Reedy of New Sewickley Township in Beaver County has been heading up the presbytery's SERRV project for 13 years. In addition to the Zelienople store, the first in the local presbytery, Reedy oversees the visitation of SERRV volunteers to area churches, where items are sometimes sold before or after services or during church events. SERRV operating out of the Beaver/Butler Presbytery posted $16,000 in sales in 2006.
Reedy said popular items include wooden puzzle boxes and sterling silver and costume jewelry. She said the unique and sturdy jewelry always proves eye-catching for its wearers.
SERRV was originally created in 1949 by the Church of the Brethren to assist World War II refugees. Today, explained Reedy, items are purchased from low-income artisans from all over the world.The artisans are employed in groups that craft a specific item. The group is led by someone with management experience or someone who received training from the church.SERRV pays half the cost for items up front, then pays the other half upon delivery to the U.S. SERRV warehouse in New Windsor, Md. The group leader then distributes profits to group members, who work 12 to 14 hours per day making their craft."If an artisan sells $1,200 of their item, a family of four can live on that for a year in a developing country," said Reedy.Reedy said as well as earning income, crafters are taught everything from personal money management to personal hygiene by group leaders."It's amazing what they do for them," said Reedy.She said artisans connect with SERRV through an international fair trade list or through Christian missionaries who discover them.As an example, Reedy points to artisans in a developing Middle Eastern country who carve beautiful wall hangings from old wooden oil drums with native hammer-and-chisel-type tools."Each item has a beautiful story," she said.Reedy said SERRV has aided more than just individual families over the years: A primary school obliterated by a natural disaster in Kenya was rebuilt with proceeds from tiny soapstone eggs."Everyone who goes to that school must help make the soapstone eggs in some way," said Reedy.
Reedy said in her 13-year tenure ordering SERRV products, the mother-of-pearl necklaces have been her biggest overall seller. The necklaces sell for an average of $12. Reedy also allows others to peruse the SERRV catalogues and make selections before she orders, as choosing jewelry is such a subjective art.Regarding church-to-church SERRV sales, Reedy said volunteers travel to Protestant churches all over Western Pennsylvania to display and sell items. Jack Howard of Lancaster Township drives the inventory to every church the group visits and takes it all back to a SERRV storage area after the sale.Howard explained he first hopped into his 1990 Jeep pick-up truck seven years ago to make SERRV deliveries to churches and other venues. He opted to take on the task after the former driver, who was a fellow member of Park United Presbyterian Church in Zelienople, decided to retire."Why not?" said the spry deliveryman. "Everybody has to do something volunteer."Howard puts on about 1,500 miles per year in SERRV service, and he said this time of year is busy. He said SERRV sets up at Horse Trading Days each year, followed by a show at Calvin United Presbyterian Church.Howard has traveled to venues as far away as Greenville and West Middlesex, Mercer County, to deliver and retrieve SERRV inventory.Howard said he continues in his work because it encourages entrepreneurship in developing countries."The money goes to people that need it," he said.Reedy said two SERRV volunteers also travel to each venue to oversee the sale, and a volunteer or two from the hosting congregation helps set up and tear down.She said because of ever-spiraling fuel prices, the Beaver/Butler Presbyterian Women contribute toward gasoline for volunteers in SERRV's traveling show. The next venue is slated for Center United Presbyterian Church in Slippery Rock on Dec. 2.Nancy Slezak, the Presbyterian Women moderator at Hill United Presbyterian Church in Butler, said that church hosts a SERRV sale every couple years to ensure fresh inventory.Slezak said shoppers love the uniqueness of SERRV items, and some collect certain items like wooden boxes and Christmas pieces."They like that there's always something a little bit new and different," said Slezak.Those who cannot make it to the Zelienople SERRV store during its limited hours can call 724-538-9860 and request a viewing if they have three or more interested shoppers. SERRV items can also be purchased online at www.agreatergift.org.
