This week we were very sad to say goodbye to our lovely office manager Lynsay as she moved on to new adventures. Lynsay had been working with Rainbow Turtle for six years and saw us through lots of changes and both good and bad times. Her commitment to Rainbow Turtle and fair trade, as well as her sunny disposition and amazing office skills, mean that we’ll miss her very very much. From all at Rainbow Turtle we wish Lynsay good luck in whatever comes next!
Last week we went along to the UWS Students’ Union for their annual Volunteering Fair. It was really great to speak to new students about what we do for Fair Trade in Paisley and how they can get involved. I hope we’ve picked up some new volunteers by going along, but at the very least we attracted some new customers to our lovely shop by showing off just some of the amazing products we sell which help producers and the environment.
But don’t worry – it’s not only students that we’re looking for as volunteers! Coming into the Christmas season we’ll be very busy and need lots of extra help so if you’d like a bit of retail experience in a laid-back, friendly environment, or you’re simply a supporter of the shop and want to help out even more then please get in touch. You can find out more about our volunteering opportunities here and we’d be delighted to hear from anyone, regardless of your previous experience or skills. Get in touch!
Our Annual General Meeting will take place at 7pm on Tuesday 8th October in the lounge of Paisley Methodist Central Halls. The first half of the evening will follow a formal AGM format, while the second half will be a presentation of the outcomes from our recent review of Rainbow Turtle. Tea and coffee wil be available. All are welcome to attend.
On Saturday 7th September from 11am until 4pm we’ll have a stall of some of our products (and lots and lots of info about Rainbow Turtle!) in the Paisley Methodist Central Hall for Renfrewshire Doors Open Day. This will give you a chance to explore the interesting building where we have our office, as well as lots of other places around Paisley and beyond! You can pick up a brochure with details of all venues in the Rainbow Turtle shop or view it online here.
A few weeks ago we helped Kilbarchan Smile to celebrate their annual Gateway Garden open day, along with representatives from Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue, The Real Junk Food Project, and Badger the Mystical Mutt, taking a stall from our shop. It was lovely to see the garden and to show off our fair trade and eco products but unfortunately the weather wasn’t on our side and it soon started pouring with rain, meaning that not quite as many visitors were brought in as had been hoped.
If you would be interested in a Rainbow Turtle stall at your event, please get in touch and we’ll let you know if it will be possible for us to come along. With fingers crossed for better weather!
The simple answer? Buy more fairly traded products! But what if you want to do more than that? Well, the Scottish Fair Trade Forum have made it so much easier for you to get campaigning and inspire real change with their Fair Trade Campaign Toolkit. The guide takes you through four modules, with info on Fair Trade, the basics of campaigning, how to take action, and how to take action online.
Introducing the toolkit, the Scottish Fair Trade Forum say:
Whether you are an experienced Fair Trade campaigner, new to the Fair Trade cause or new to campaigning, this toolkit is for YOU! We need Fair Trade and we need people to campaign for it. Unacceptable levels of poverty, economic inequality, human rights violations and the climate crisis are global challenges of our time and we all have a responsibility to take action to try to overcome these challenges. We believe that Fair Trade has a role to play in fighting these global issues.
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
As we reach the end of Plastic Free July, a global challenge to refuse and reduce single-use plastics, it got us thinking about the ways Rainbow Turtle can help you to continue to to reduce your plastic use – all year round!
One of the easiest switches you can make is to using a shampoo bar instead of buying a new bottle each time, and this lavender and geranium bar from Friendly Soaps smells particularly delicious! The travel soap is also incredibly handy – washing body, hair and laundry! Bars are £2.65 and are entirely free of plastic packaging.
If you’re serious about reducing your plastic waste and trying to help our endangered environment, you’ll definitely want to stop using takeaway coffee cups as soon as possible – these often can’t be recycled! That doesn’t mean you have to give up coffee on the go though, and we are here to help with a choice of natural bamboo Ecoffee cups (£9.99) and glass Turtle cups (£12.99) in store.
Special occassions and all the excess that goes along with them don’t have to mean a negative environmental impact is inevitable either. At Rainbow Turtle we have cards for all occassions that are made from recycled paper and wrapped in compostable packaging. This beautiful 1 Tree card also includes wildflower seeds, to help insects locally, and funds the planting of trees in areas of mass deforestation!
Getting gifts for your little ones doesn’t have to involve masses of plastic waste like we often think – these Lanka Kade toys are made from sustainable and durable wood, so they’ll last, and quite a number of the toys we stock, like the ones above (wheelies £6 each, zoo set £16), don’t even have any plastic packaging and also help children in Sri Lanka so you can feel good about your purchase in more ways than one.
So what about once you’ve made these amazing purchases at Rainbow Turtle – how are you going to get them home without a plastic bag? Well, you’re in luck! We have a variety of options from these recycled newspaper bags (left, 20p) which support street children in India, to the fancier option of a reusable tote bag (right, £4.99) which is made from recycled saris, and folds up into a handy zip pouch for easy storage on the go.
These are just a few of the many exciting and ethical products we carry at Rainbow Turtle. We’re also a refill shop for Ecover household products, meaning you can save money and plastic by bringing your bottles back to be filled over and over again. We’re always finding new and interesting fair trade and ethical products so make Rainbow Turtle your first stop to saving the world!
Last month, the Scottish Parliament’s Cross Party Group on Fair Trade invited Rainbow Turtle, along with One World Shop in Edinburgh, Dos Mundos in Anstruther, and All Things Fair in Blairgowrie, to discuss “Fair Trade shops on our high streets: challenges and opportunities.” The Convenor of the group, Colin Smyth MSP, was in attendance, as were representatives from other groups interested in Fair Trade. Climate change protesters from Extinction Rebellion had formed a camp very close to the parliament building, causing some issues with security that meant we all faced a long wait to get inside but it was worth it.
Each Fair Trade shop in turn gave a brief history of their shop and then went on to discuss the challenges that they face. It was decided that these could be broken down into more general retail challenges (e.g. a general downturn in high street shopping) and specifically Fair Trade issues (e.g. lack of awareness of Fair Trade). Rainbow Turtle noted that the real value of a Fair Trade shop is in the community that it creates – both within our group of volunteers and with regards to repeat customers who promote the shop by word of mouth.
All Things Fair, Dos Mundos and One World Shop all suggested that high levels of tourism in their area helps their sales a great deal, which is hopefully something we can come to rely on too as Paisley promotes itself as a tourist destination. So next time you have visitors to the town, or if you’re a visitor yourself, come along to Rainbow Turtle for unique and ethical gifts and treats!
We were really pleased to be invited along today to Mary Russell School for a lunch to celebrate their 50th anniversary. We work a lot with Mary Russell, and they’re big supporters of Fair Trade, as Gemma and Lynsay noticed when they sat opposite a Fairtrade mark for their lunch! The food was lovely, but even more exciting was hearing from pupils about the amazing work that the school does now, as well as how special Mary Russell the person, a pioneer of Special Education in the 20th Century, was. Finding a display of pupils’ work on Fair Trade was also a highlight. Thank you to Mary Russell School for inviting us!
It’s Volunteers’ Week this week (1st – 7th June) so to celebrate we got together with some of our amazing shop volunteers and charity trustees on Wednesday, had some tasty sandwiches and cakes, and had a good chat. It was great to see so many of our volunteers at once, and a good opportunity for everyone to meet or catch up with those who tend to help out on different days. Rainbow Turtle wouldn’t be where it is today, and wouldn’t be able to continue, without the support of our fantastic volunteers, so it was only right that we did something to thank them.
We’re also always seeking new volunteers so if you’d like to join this friendly bunch then have a look here for more information and get in touch!
