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Green Mother Goods Celebrates Five Year Anniversary with Wine to Water Wine Tasting Benefit Dec. 7

Dec. 5, 2012. To give back, Dec. 7, Green Mother Goods will be hosting a benefit wine-tasting event for the locally-based international non-profit organization Wine to Water. Wine to Water’s main mission is to help provide clean drinking water to needy countries. All proceeds will go to Wine to Water. During Art Crawl don’t forget to stop by and taste some wine, help some less fortunate countries, and come enjoy live music and entertainment.

Green Mother Goods is celebrating five years of making a difference in our local community and the world. The store was started as a business that could provide earth-friendly, responsibly manufactured goods and information to the local community and beyond. They believe that every purchase makes a difference and every dollar spent is a vote.

Green Mother Goods supports eco-friendly goods so that customers know their products are safe and non-toxic and that their dollars are going to support a healthy, cleaner world for everyone. They offer only sweatshop-free and fair-trade/fair-labor certified products from overseas so that customers can vote with their dollar for peace and social justice around the globe. And they offer goods and products made in the U.S., namely their catalog of local and regional consignment items, so that patrons can choose to support their neighbors and local economy, which will also have ripple effects to improve the nation’s troubled financial system.

The store carries organic cotton clothing, fair-trade gift items, natural toys and wonderful local art and handcrafts. Over the past five years, Green Mother Goods has served over 200 consigners of local arts and handcrafts. Their wide variety of items made right here in the High Country includes everything from jewelry, scarves and handbags, to paintings and pottery, to soap and natural lotion and much more.

They provide an outlet for many people who are just developing their craft, new entrepreneurs, and people who like to do crafts as side jobs, but might not have enough to offer at a show or have the physical ability to work a vendor booth, like many other local crafters.

While their main mission is to provide the products regular customers need for their green lifestyle, part of the mission is education and to get people thinking about their purchases. Being a “conscious consumer” means thinking about your purchases; not only evaluating the price point, but where and how it was manufactured and what from what materials it is made. Is it durable or disposable? Are the resources it comes from sustainable or polluting? Was it made by a fair-labor, independently owned cooperative or in a sweatshop? Is it supporting my local economy, or are my dollars going to support a large corporation that isn’t concerned about my community or the environment? These are the questions to consider before casting your vote with a purchase. Now can the answer always be perfect? No, even at Green Mother Goods, products come in “shades of green,” but a conscious consumer starts thinking about their product options and tries to make the best choice available to suit their needs.

In addition, Green Mother Goods is offering investment opportunities. Their future goals include: increased inventory options; improving storefront appearance; a new upgraded website; continuing and expanding the “Early Bird” Friday evening Farmer’s Market and monthly open-air Artist Market next summer; and opening a ‘green garden center’ in the side, fenced-in area. However, the property where Green Mother Goods is currently located is for sale and is subject to being bought out by a large corporation. Green Mother Goods owners/managers Debi Golembieski and Christie Fredenburg are hoping an investor will come forward who can help them keep this important property a local landmark.