About Ten Thousand Villages in Hagerstown, MD
Ten Thousand Villages in Hagerstown, MD, is a fair trade retailer of artisan-crafted home decor, personal accessories and gift items from across the globe. Featuring products from 130 artisan groups in some 37 countries, we are part of a network of 156 retail outlets throughout the United States selling Ten Thousand Villages products.
As one of the world’s oldest and largest fair trade organizations, Ten Thousand Villages has spent more than 60 years cultivating trading relationships in which artisans receive a fair price for their work and consumers have access to distinctive handcrafted items. We seek to establish long-term buying relationships in places where skilled artisans are under- or unemployed, and in which they lack other opportunities for income. A founding member of the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT), Ten Thousand Villages sees fair trade as an alternative approach to conventional international trade.
The store in Hagerstown opened in 1978 as World Treasures Self Help Crafts and Thrift Shop downtown on West Franklin Street. In 1995, Self Help expanded and moved to a separate location on Pennsylvania Avenue. The name changed to Ten Thousand Villages in 2001; and in 2004, the store moved to its current location further north on Pennsylvania Avenue, just north of the Maugans Avenue intersection. World Treasures Thrift Shop is still open downtown on West Franklin Street; proceeds from the Thrift Shop benefit the Mennonite Central Committee, a relief organization that works around the globe.
© 2008 Ten Thousand Villages. 
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