Ten Thousand Villages Pasadena Celebrates 20 Years of Fair Trade and Community

A Pasadena nonprofit that has spent two decades selling handcrafted goods while supporting artisans around the world will celebrate its 20th anniversary this month, marking a milestone for one of South Lake Avenue’s distinctive independent retailers.

Ten Thousand Villages Pasadena, which opened at 567 S. Lake Ave. in June 2006 as the first Ten Thousand Villages store in California, is planning a 20th-anniversary celebration Saturday, Aug. 22. The store has also launched an online benefit auction, “Fiesta de la Tierra,” running through the anniversary date.

The anniversary celebration will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 22 at Sweetland Hall at All Saints Church, 132 N. Euclid Ave. in Pasadena. Tickets are available through the nonprofit’s online event page.

For Ten Thousand Villages Pasadena, the anniversary represents more than the survival of a neighborhood storefront.

The shop is a locally governed nonprofit affiliate of the larger Ten Thousand Villages network, selling handcrafted home décor, jewelry, textiles, clothing, accessories and other merchandise made by artisans in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. The broader organization says it connects more than 20,000 artisans in roughly 25 to 30 countries with North American consumers.

Store manager Laurel Murrieta underscored the significance of the approaching anniversary earlier this year while discussing World Fair Trade Day.

“That’s a big deal for a brick-and-mortar to celebrate 20 years,” Murrieta said.

The Pasadena store has become a familiar presence along South Lake Avenue, where its shelves carry products that often identify both the country of origin and the artisan traditions behind them. Among the merchandise described in the store are hand-knotted rugs, baskets fashioned from recycled sari fabric, jewelry, clothing, home goods, coffee and tea.

Unlike a conventional gift shop, the store operates with substantial support from volunteers. Customers have repeatedly noted that many of the people working in the store donate their time because of their commitment to the fair-trade mission.

That mission centers on creating sustainable income opportunities for artisans in economically disadvantaged communities by bringing their work to international markets.

Ten Thousand Villages traces its beginnings to 1946, when Edna Ruth Byler began selling embroidery made by Puerto Rican artisans from the trunk of her car in Pennsylvania. What began as a small effort to provide markets for handmade goods eventually developed into the international fair-trade organization whose products are now sold through affiliated stores and other channels.

The fair-trade model is designed to shift some of the commercial risk away from individual craftspeople. Organization-wide, artisan enterprises have historically been paid part of an agreed purchase price in advance to help pay for materials, with the balance paid when work is completed and before merchandise is shipped to North America.

For Pasadena shoppers, however, the global mission is expressed through a decidedly local institution.

The Pasadena operation is governed locally, and its finances illustrate its survival is closely tied to retail activity. That makes purchases, donations and fundraising particularly important to the nonprofit.

The anniversary fundraiser comes as brick-and-mortar retailers continue to compete with online shopping and changing consumer habits — circumstances that make a 20-year run particularly meaningful for a specialty nonprofit store.

Murrieta, speaking in May during the store’s World Fair Trade Day observance, described the organization’s place in the movement.

“This is the biggest day in the fair trade industry, since we are a fair trade store and one of the first fair trade organizations in the United States,” she said.

The Pasadena store’s inventory gives shoppers a physical connection to that larger mission. Customers encounter merchandise made by artisans across several continents, with products ranging from practical household items and gift goods to handmade jewelry and textiles.

Longtime customers have described the store as a regular destination for gifts, with some returning specifically for products such as recycled sari-fabric flowers, fair-trade coffee and chocolate, handcrafted housewares and jewelry.

The store also stages community-oriented promotions throughout the year. In May, it marked World Fair Trade Day with a Mother’s Day shopping event and gift-card raffle. The anniversary celebration represents the most prominent local observance yet of the store’s two decades in Pasadena.

The “Fiesta de la Tierra” online auction opened Aug. 1 and is scheduled to run through Aug. 22. The store has identified it specifically as part of the Ten Thousand Villages Pasadena 20th anniversary celebration fundraiser.

Twenty years after opening as California’s first Ten Thousand Villages storefront, the Pasadena operation remains rooted in the same basic proposition: that an ordinary retail purchase can also connect a local shopper with the livelihood of a craftsperson thousands of miles away.

And for the nonprofit behind the counter on South Lake Avenue, the Aug. 22 anniversary will mark something equally local — two decades of Pasadena customers, volunteers and supporters keeping that proposition alive.

Need to Know: Ten Thousand Villages Pasadena’s 20th Anniversary Celebration will be held Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Sweetland Hall at All Saints Church, 132 N. Euclid Ave., Pasadena. Tickets are $185 per person. Parking: Event-specific parking location and cost have not been published in the available anniversary event information. For more information, call Ten Thousand Villages Pasadena at (626) 229-9892 or visit tenthousandvillages.com/pasadena.