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Show Utah Statesman Aggie Life. > 10,000 VILLAGES From page 4 THESE SMALL MATS are a popular item at 10,000 Villages. They are made from recycled newspaper and phonebooks. SALIY KELLER HOLDS our their most popular item, a goldfish river rock from a river in nirthern Vietnam. These rocks are carefully coasted with a natural black lacquer to make them dark and smooth. MANAGER of 10,000 Villages displays a cup made from Onyx, a semi-precious stone found in various provinces in Pakistan. vital, fair income to Third World people by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America. Ten Thousand Villages works with artisans who would otherwise be unemployed or underemployed and this income helps pay for food, education, healthcare or housing. Ten Thousand Villages is a nonprofit program of Mennonite Central Committee, the relief and development agency of Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in North America. Sally Keller is the manager of the Ten Thousand Villages store in Logan. She said that the people involved with Ten Thousand Villages help cooperatives get started by deciding on a fair price for the product and paying for half of their goods up front. This helps the artisans cover the cost of production. The other half of the payment is given to the co-op after the product is finished. Keller explained that volunteer work is a crucial part of Ten Thousand Villages. This eliminates the middle man and maximizes the profit for the artisans. Volunteers working for Ten Thousand Villages take care of the packaging, shipping, customs, warehousing and distributing of the products to over 160 stores across North America. Even the salespeople in the stores are working for free. About 35 different countries are represented through their handiwork at the Logan store. Some of Keller's favorite items in the store are hand-embroidered tablecloths that come from India. "They are made by women who belong to a group called Saint Mary's Handcrafts Co-op," Keller said. "I had an opportunity to visit the cooperative and am amazed at what they have accomplished." Keller described how the women who make the tablecloths get along so well together even though they come from very different religious backgrounds — some of them Muslim and some Hindu. "There is friendship across cultural lines — it is an empow- ering thing for them," Keller said. Many of the artisans that create crafts distributed by Ten Thousand Villages are women who can bring a second income to the home and gain an increased respect from their husbands and community. Other artisans are mentally and/or physically disabled who would not be able to find work elsewhere. Hand-painted river rocks from Vietnam are the number one best seller. The process begins with a river rock that is coated with 10 coats of a natural black lacquer to make them dark and smooth. Each coat takes a about a week to dry. A goldfish applique" is made out of gold foil and is applied and sealed with a final coat of clear lacquer. The rocks, which take over 100 days to complete, sell for $7. Cookbooks that focus on making things out of food you have on hand and using produce that is in season are another popular item. They sell out so fast that Keller said she has a hard time keeping them in stock. There are many more items, such as beaded jewelry from Africa, handmade dolls from Peru and puzzles from Sri Lanka. Keller points out that each craft has its own story about the people who made it and where it came from. Some of the pieces are made using recycled newspaper, phonebooks and pop cans, which promote an environmentally friendly and affordable product. "The majority of items in the store are under $20," Keller said. Ten Thousand Villages is located at 146 N. 100 East and is open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Keller says to watch for extended hours around the holidays and a new name, which will be Global Village Gifts. Keller advises anyone interested in volunteering at the store to come down during operating hours and fill out a volunteer form. -nnaylor@cc.usu.edu Photos by Amy Fuller/ amylee@cc.usu.edu • STARS tacos and burritos 1 i $ 1 OFF all combination meals Expires Sept. 30, 2005 MEXICAN FOOD EAT IN & TAKE-OUT OPEN 2 4 HOURS 750-0328 Service Opportunity Do You Have 1 Spare Hour a Week? Do You Like Working With Youth? Would you like to help youth in Cache Valley? Do you need an extra credit.. and it's free! If you answered YES to any of these questions, you should be a mentor. The Cache County School District REACH Mentoring Program is looking for Volunteers, including students & professors, to work at various schools in the county. If you would like more information or have any questions, please call Melia at 757-0139. You can request information by e-mail by sending a message to melia.balls@ cache.k12.ut.us. Subject: Mentor. Muffler Free estimates All brake system repairs Foreign and domestic Performance exhaust - *Ask about our liftetime guarantees on mufflers* State Inspections^ 10% Student • Discount on Parts From page 5 tells us something about our own galaxy and how we were formed. We are learning something about our own evolution," she said. SALT also will delve into the nature of mysterious phenomena such as dark matter, black holes and gamma-ray bursts. Closer to home, the telescope's lightpolarizing capability will allow astronomers to study comets and discern their composition, said Eric Wilcots, a UW professor of astronomy. "Whenever there is a comet anywhere nearby, we'll point SALT at it," Wilcots said. The images released Thursday are socalled first light pictures, done without 5O<< OFF d the spectrograph analysis. They show newly born stars, clusters of stars 2,000 light years away that are more than twice the size and age of the sun, and a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way that is 30 million light years away. When the spectrograph is in operation in about a month, astronomers will be able learn about the physical properties of distant objects, such as their age, mass and chemical composition, whether they are made of elements like hydrogen, helium, sodium and iron, said Theodore Williams, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rutgers. "The universe started out being made up of hydrogen and helium and essentially nothing else," Williams said. All the other elements were made in stars later, after the Big Bang, he said. Williams said he would be amazed if the telescope does not produce important new discoveries. "As it becomes clear what this telescope can do, many astronomers will want to use it," he said. "It will be a very popular telescope." However, SALT's astronomical supremacy over the southern sky may last only a decade. Scientists at the University of Arizona are building a 22-meter telescope, twice the size of SALT. $12 with Student IC 753-7470 Open Mon.- Fri. 8-5 Sat. 8-1 ' 6 0 1 N. MAIN • LOGAN Q) naps cubUo LlmiMl.ive/w>>eXAe La, JUALbu-vuui KYROOM From page 6 Jamie (rane/jamiecrance@cc.u$u.edu THE SKYROOM IS LOCATED on the 4th floor of the TSC. Faculty tend to use the Skyroom more often than students but the restaurant is open to all who would like a more relaxed dining experience. Phally Chhouk and Sandy Durtschi are students who said they come to the Skyroom to get something other than fastibod. "The food is really good in quality compared to other places," Durtschi said. "It adds a different variety from what is down- stairs." Many faculty members frequent the Skyroom for lunch and sometimes meetings. However, few students dare to venture up past the third floor of the TSC. Sialaris said the reason may come down to students' tight budget and not wanting to pay a tip. "That might be one distraction, but the food really is not expensive," Sialaris said Menu prices range from $4.45 for half a sandwich, to closer to $10 for the buffet, but Wiltermood said it is a pretty good deal for the "hearty portion" that is served. Soft drinks also have free refills. "It's not too bad," Chhouk said. "If you're looking for the atmosphere, you don't mind paying a little more." Another thing that adds to the Skyroom's charm is its connection with the campus. Every year beginning in August, a different department is featured and given the opportunity to decorate and display its message in the Skyroom and its menu. This year's featured department is the technology management and commercialization department. "It's a great opportunity to get their department out there and have everyone else on campus see what they do," Sialaris said. At night, the Skyroom hosts portions of school events, such as refreshmentsforthe Howl and Homecoming, as well as Poetry and a Beverage, department dinners and wedding receptions. The Skyroom is open Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. "I'd love for more students to come up," Sialaris said. "They just need to come up and try it out." -bmnelson@cc.usu.edu Op.«Mv9llari,-S«M0 -9 §iuv 12 - My Printing is pone on timer Square, ^Professional Quality ^Business Forms AThesis, dissertations Wedding Invitations & Accessories III f\ |