Alternative Gift Ideas

An announcement after Meeting on 11/28/04 suggested that Friends might want to think about giving gifts acquired from alternative sources, such as Heifer International. Some other places where one can either make a donation in honor of someone, or buy a gift made by artesans who are paid fairly. Some resources:

Free Library of Phila. Foundation. Give a book to the library in honor of someone: www.library.phila.gov

Philabundance food for the hungry. www.philabundance.org

Gifts that help others and promote peace: each of the following offer gifts you can purchase, or you can give memberships and/or donations in someone's name. Items with * will be available at our table.

• *True Majority Pens pull out the federal budget! $2.50 at our gift table or www.truemajority.org
• 10,000 Villages (Mennonite Central Committee) stores in Chestnut Hill, Center City, Bryn Mawr. They carry "fair trade" coffee, a wonderful gift.
• Nonviolence Peaceforce $10 bonds www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org/english/pb/peacebonds.asp
• *Lights for Peace give CFLs and help reduce our energy demands.
• *Fabric Napkins, or travel mugs
• Center for a New American Dream (www. newdream. org) family oriented organization promoting sustainability. Ask for their Simplifying the Holidays packet.
• Women's International League for Peace and Freedom: www.wilpf.org
• Buy a hive of bees, or a bevy of chicks for a third world family via www.heifer.org
• Women in India: www.marketplaceindia.org or 800 726 8905
• UNICEF: www.unicef.org
• AFSC: www.afsc.org
• Or, contribute to CHMM for whatever meeting work speaks most to you (e.g., some Friends are donating money to help pay for the recently approved attic insulation and heating ductwork. repair). Or give directly to an organization with whom Friends work such as NPIHN, Fairhill Burial Ground, The Hospice Project, etc.

Other Web sites with great ideas:

• Natural Resources Defense Council's gift guide: www.nrdc.org/cities/lving/ggift.asp
• Where to find 10,000 green products www.coopamerica.org (click on Green Pages)

Books on sustainabilhy:

• Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart
• Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins & L Hunter Lovins
• The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability by Paul Hawken

And then, when you are ready, make your own gift wrap! use old fabric, baskets, or newspaper (depending on the recipient's interests use the comics, movie, food, or financial sections!). Also, please bring in your used wrapping materials, gift boxes, ribbons, and old cards that can be used for gift tags.

And yet another way to give

Donate to the Germantown Avenue Crisis Ministry, based at First Presbyterian Church of Germantown, by bringing in nonperishable food items in boxes or cans; or "buying" items while at meeting, which have been purchased by caseload, by removing them from case into "Donations" box and dropping $ contribution in a basket. Peace and Social Concerns Committee will be setting this up.