FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 12, 2008
www.jcu.edu
Contact: Tonya Strong-Charles
               216.397.1958

tstrong@jcu.edu

*******MEDIA ALERT*******

JCU Students sell “Fair Trade” Roses on Valentines Day
February 13-14
11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
D.J. Lombardo Student Center / Schott Atrium

Valentine’s Day “Fair Trade” sale!
Proceeds will go toward service learning opportunities in the United States and abroad.

Students involved with JCU’s Campus Ministry will sell Fair Trade certified roses from Kenya to support student travelers on summer mission trips. 

The JCU group has been working throughout the academic year to educate students, faculty, and staff about Fair Trade and the available products (coffee, tea, and chocolate).  Fair Trade certification provides workers in flower-growing countries like Ecuador, Colombia, and Kenya with fairer wages, protections from dangerous pesticide chemicals, opportunities for their community organizations to benefit directly from the sale of certified flowers, and much more.  The Fair Trade flowers are becoming more popular amongst U.S. retailers.  Locally they can be found at Sam’s Club or 1-800-FLOWERS-ONLINE.

Natalie Terry, a sophomore at John Carroll University, began working with the Fair Trade group through an internship program sponsored by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in September.  Terry has become fond of the quotation by the manager of a cocoa farmers cooperative in Ghana, "We all have to go shopping. Fair trade is just shopping with respect."

Natalie Terry
Cell: 518-396-0702
nterry10@jcu.edu

John Carroll University, located in Cleveland, Ohio, is a liberal arts university grounded in the Jesuit, Catholic tradition.  The university has some 3,100 plus undergraduates and just over 700 graduate students.  The U.S. News & World Report’s 2007 annual college guide ranks John Carroll University among the top 10 master’s-degree granting universities in the Midwest and first in average graduation rate. Originally founded as St. Ignatius College in 1886, the university was renamed in 1923 to honor America’s first Catholic bishop, John Carroll of Maryland.  John Carroll is one of 28 Jesuit colleges and universities located in the United States.

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