Source: Courtney Held, courtney.held@gmail.com
Web site: http://www.faastfunrun.wordpress.com

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

FAIR TRADE AWARENESS, AFRICA'S SUSTAINABILITY, TOGETHER EVENT APRIL 26 AT K-STATE

MANHATTAN -- Community service projects in Kenya will benefit from funds raised at Kansas State University's first Fair Trade Awareness, Africa's Sustainability, Together, or FAAST, event Sunday, April 26.

Activities will include a 5K fun run, music and social justice fair.

"The purpose of this event is to raise awareness about issues such as fair trade, environmental sustainability and social justice," said Courtney Held, a K-State senior in dietetics and public health nutrition, Leawood, who has joined with other K-State students to organize the event. It is sponsored by K-State's Episcopal Campus Ministry.

All events are open to the public, and all will begin and end on the Bosco Plaza in front of the K-State Student Union.

"We will have free food, prize giveaways and a DJ providing music," Held said.

Activities will start at 8 a.m. on the Bosco Plaza with registration and check-in for the fun run, which will start at 9 a.m. The cost is $10 per individual or $25 for a team of three. Early registration is available online at http://www.faastfunrun.wordpress.com

Once runners have completed the race, the social justice fair will begin and last until 11:30 a.m. or noon, Held said.

The event will feature canvas bags made by women in Kenya and Malawi, on sale for $12. The money raised will go to the two fair trade groups who made the bags, Comfort the Children International in Kenya, and African Bags in Malawi.

Representatives from K-State groups involved with fair trade, sustainability and other causes also will be on hand.

Held, along with Valerie Stull, a K-State graduate student in public health from Longmont, Colo., and Kiera Evans, campus ministry intern with the Episcopal Campus Student Group, are organizing the FAAST event. All three will be going to Kenya this summer on a mission trip.