Would you like to win a hamper of fairtrade goodies worth over £50? As one of the events for Fairtrade Fortnight 2012, the Harrogate Borough Fairtrade Steering Group is offering you a chance to do just that by stepping round Harrogate town centre on a “treasure trail” of just six of the coffee shops that regularly serve fairtrade drinks and food, from Saturday 25th February to Saturday 10th March 2012 inclusive.

Simply visit each of the six venues listed on the leaflet, (available to download FREE from www.harrogatefairtrade.co.uk or you will be able to pick up a copy in the participating coffee shops) and you will find an A4 poster (look for a footprint shape!) prominently displayed in each of them. Enter the two pieces of information you will find on every poster onto the leaflet, then rearrange the letters to form a word linked to fairtrade and send your completed form back to the address given by 15 March 2012. The trail will take from 20 to 30 minutes to complete – a bit longer if you stop for refreshment in one of the venues! All correct entries will be entered into the draw to win the hamper.

Fairtrade Yorkshire’s 2012 schools competition is about the Fairtrade journey.

The aim: To show the journey of a Fairtrade product in a fun and interesting way.

• Watch the mini film example uploaded on LeedsDEC’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/LeedsDEC
• Choose a Fairtrade product to research
• Find out about the people who grow/make it. What work do they do? How does selling Fairtrade goods benefit them and their communities? How do their lives differ from people who make goods not sold on fair trade terms?
• Find out about who else is involved in bringing us the product
• Decide how you are going to tell the story of the product: puppets telling the story? A story book read out by the product? An animation?
• Do your preparation (make props, draw your pictures etc) and practice (or not in the case of the Fairtrade Yorkshire rose example!)

Record your story and upload it to Youtube (no longer than 2 minutes please!)

Send the link to Hannah@leedsdec.org.uk by Friday March 16th. The best 5 will be chosen and uploaded onto www.fairtradeyorkshire.org.uk

There will be a week for you to vote for your favourite.

The winner(s) will be presented with a Fairtrade hamper and a Fairtrade Yorkshire schools certificate.

Want to know more? Watch the video!

Good luck!

Download the competition flyer (PDF).

York’s Centre for Global Education & Fairtrade Yorkshire held a North Yorkshire schools event on 24th January entitled Take A Step for Fairtrade.

Pictured here are pupils from Canon Lee School with the Lord Mayor of York, Councillor David Horton, who presented the Fairtrade Yorkshire school awards.  The event looked forward to Fairtrade Fortnight (27th February to 11th March).

Everyone is encouraged to Take A Step for Fairtrade by buying an extra Fairtrade product or asking their local shop to stock more Fairtrade goods.

You too can take a step for Fairtrade by clicking here.

The goal is to reach a target of 1.5 million steps by the end of 2012.

Karen Palframan of Bradford Fairtrade District will don her hiking boots to take a step along the Fair Trade Way.

Karen, pictured here with the founding father of Fairtrade towns & cities, Bruce Crowther, plans to help activists throughout the county extend the Fair Trade Way across Yorkshire.

The Way will start at the Fair Trade visitor centre in the world’s first Fairtrade town of Garstang.  Centuries of enmity between ourselves and the aud enemy have been brought to an end as the hiking route will link the Lancashire town with a network of paths across Yorkshire.  Thus enabling those unfortunate enough to live on the wrong side of the Pennines to witness the paradise that is the Yorkshire countryside.

LATEST NEWS – The first part of the Yorkshire Fair Trade Way has been established linking all the Fairtrade towns in the Bradford Metropolitan District.  Click here for details on this scenic circular walking route.

The Yorkshire Gets ready event was held on 20th January.  Schools from across the county came together to meet with Fairtrade supporters and retailers at the University of Leeds.

Fairtrade Yorkshire ran the event in conjunction with the Leeds Development Education Centre.  Gary Craig from the Wilberforce Institute gave a speech on present day child slavery, encouraging us all to ask questions about where the goods we use are made.

The pupils who took part all enjoyed the bite sized workshops, which included the making of puppets for a Fairtrade video and the up-cycling of unwanted items to create a fetching pair of flip flops (fitting with this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight theme – Take A Step).

In January Fairtrade Yorkshire Coordinator, Mark Dawson, met with Fairtrade cocoa producers, Koaume Fasseri & Fulgence N’Guessan from the Ivory Coast.  Koaume & Fulgence were visiting the UK representing the Kavokiva cooperative, which supplies the cocoa for the four fingered Kit Kats produced by Nestle in York.

At an event at York’s Manor School they spoke with pupils who are taking part in the Archbishop of York’s Young Leaders Award.  This was followed by a Dragons’ Den exercise with Mark, Harriet Lamb (CEO of the Fairtrade Foundation) & Wouter from Nestle as the fearsome dragons.