Feb 9, 2011

California Gift Show Announces World Style Stories Award Winners

Los Angeles, CA – The California Gift Show chose five outstanding World Style Stories from select exhibitors at a special celebration in Kentia – The Global Marketplace on Friday, January 21, 2011. This vibrant division of the California Gift Show is home to hundreds of exhibitors that source products made by artisans from around the world with mindful business practices – these companies are ethical, responsible and serve to strengthen communities with minimal impact on the planet. These exhibitors were invited earlier this year to submit their stories about the products they make and the people who make them for consideration. All of the submissions were featured on the California Gift Show website leading up to the opening of the show, and will remain online until the July market. Five stories were selected from over 25 that were submitted and then included in a special display located within Kentia to bring attention to the good work that these companies are doing to strengthen communities around the world.

The winning entries, along with their 100 word essay, were:

Woven Promises
We work with struggling, talented, artisans in Ethiopia, Namibia, Ghanaand Morocco. We partner with FAWENA (Forum for African Women Educationalists in Namibia) keeping at-risk girls in school, with in-need HIV positive mothers in Ethiopia, and womens’ cooperatives in Morocco. Our products include beautiful 100% organic scarves, shawls and table linens, organic argan oil products, handmade baskets, and jewelry. We feel very fortunate to work with these wonderful people, improving the quality of the artisans’ and producers’ lives while keeping their cultural heritage and traditional artisanry alive, and nurturing their sustainable way of life for themselves and their families.

Global Handmade Hope
Global Handmade Hope began in 2009 after a mission trip to Rwanda. We offer fair trade, sustainable goods from Africa and Colombia. Our items range from accessories and cards to home decor. Our mission is to promote social justice, help families provide food, shelter, and education and gain access to health care. The artists are the true hero’s. Was it not for their creativity and hard work there would be no need for our company. We simply provide access to markets they would not normally be able to reach. With your support, we can make a difference in the world.

Manos de Madres
Manos de Madres (“Hands of Mothers”) is a nonprofit organization working with women in Africa and Latin America to bring fashion forward, fairly traded personal and home accessories to the US consumer. These artisans create products of exceptional style and quality using vivid fabrics as well as natural and recycled materials. Manos de Madres fosters the development of craft cooperatives and provides support in product design, production, marketing and sales. Through this capacity-building model, women are able to carve pathways out of poverty and grow from invisible victims to agents of change.

The Sankofa Center.Org
The Sankofa Center.Org, Outstanding Exhibitor Award Winner (New California Gift Show-January 2010), is a 501(c)(3) charity touring African villages showcasing African dance-dramas fused with health, gender, and anti-stigmatization issues to educate, test, and link thousands of women, men, and youths to treatment in Ghana, West Africa. Our HIV/AIDS Cooperative in Ghana hand makes colorful, vibrant, and unique modern style options for home, women, children, and recycled lines using fair-trade practices with all proceeds benefiting our impact in Africa. Join our growing network of goodwill through style at our West Coast base in WorldStyle.

Eternal Threads
Extreme poverty is not having enough to eat, not being able to read, and having no hope for the future. But, hope does come through sustainable livelihood. Eternal Threads provides opportunities for change in the lives of women and that of their communities through the global marketplace. We serve women in five countries ~ Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Madagascar and Thailand ~ by providing literacy and vocational training and a market for their extraordinary handmade goods. They are “changing their world” and American women are partnering with them by changing the way they shop. Intentional buying creates a global community of women.

For more award winner images please visit www.californiagiftshow.com

L.A. Mart® is a registered trademark of MMPI. The California Gift Show® is a registered trademark of MMPI. Beckman’s Handcrafted Gift Show is a registered trademark of MMPI. L.A. Mart is home to nearly 200 permanent year-round, residential, decorative accessory and gift showrooms serving the retail and interior design industries. The California Gift Show Temporaries feature over 850 temporary exhibitors of lifestyle merchandise, home décor and furnishings, in the newly enhanced and expanded Temporaries at L.A. Mart and Los Angeles Convention Center making the California Gift Show the preeminent market for gift and home furnishings products on the West Coast. L.A. Mart is located at 1933 South Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90007. For more information call 213-763-5800 or visit www.californiagiftshow.com or www.lamart.com.

MMPI is a trade show and property management firm, specializing in managing buildings devoted to wholesale showrooms and commercial office space. MMPI produces more than 300 trade shows, market events and conferences each year.

MMPI manages The Merchandise Mart and 350 West Mart Center in Chicago; Market Square, the Suites at Market Square, Hamilton Market, Plaza Suites, Furniture Plaza and the National Furniture Mart in High Point, N.C.; the Architects & Designers Building and 7 W New York in New York; the Boston Design Center in Boston; the L.A. Mart in Los Angeles; and the Washington Design Center in Washington D.C.

Vornado Realty Trust, owners of MMPI, based in New York City, is a fully integrated equity real estate investment trust. Vornado’s common shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange and are traded under the symbol VNO.