A celebration of the 2023 Wolverhampton Fair Trade Fortnight took place on Friday March 3rd in the Mayoral Suite at the Civic Centre.
left to right – Wolves Foundation rep – Marnie Richards. Midland Counties Co-Op Manager Greg Seymour, RMG, Mayor Councillor Sandra Samuels, Fair Trade Chair Julia Farrell.
All 4 Wolverhampton clubs support the intiative by sponsoring a children’s painting competition to raise awareness, particularly among young people, of the importance of Fair Trade. The challenge this year was for the children to design a new logo. In her opening speech at the awards ceremony, the Mayor, Councillor Sandra Samuels OBE was fulsome in her praise of the numerous schools and pupils that had entered, all of whom attended the event. She said she was proud of the important work done by the Partnership to promote fair trade and was extremely impressed by the children’s work exhibited.
Winner of the painting competition Anaiya Patel.
The City of Wolverhampton Club was represented by PDG Richard Green who joined President Bob Stolz from the Bilston and Wolverhampton West club and joint sponsors The Wolves Foundation, represented by Marnie Richards and Midland Counties Co-Op, represented by Greg Seymour.
We were pleased to stand with the Mayor in presenting certificates of recognition and prizes to all the short listed entrants and of course, to the winner, Anaiya Patel from Uplands Junior School.
The Chair of the Partnership, Julia Farrell spoke of the progress made around the City of the promotion of Fair Trade, which includes matrix display signs on the ring road, an agreement by one of the major employers in the aerospace industry to supply only fair trade goods in their canteen and the growing popularity of the shop in the Mander Centre.
It was a special pleasure that, through our connections with the Wolverhampton Schools Music Hub, the club was able to arrange for the school’s Big Jazz Band to perform a 10 minute set at the event.
The Schools Music Service Big Jazz Band performs – they were truly amazing!
The Head of the Music Service Ciaran O’Donnell who led the band, told the gathering he had searched for compositions that were linked to Fair Trade and the effects of climate change. So he had skillfully chosen 3 jazz pieces that were relevant – ‘A Night In Tunisia’ by Dizzie Gillespie, ‘Birdland’ by a band called Weather Report and‘Here There And Everywhere’ by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The audience was visibly overawed by the extremely high level of performance on display, and the Mayor said she was booking the band for a future event straight away!
PDG Richard Green