Home
Nobel Nominee Credits Influence of Sunday School
By Stan Friedman
SONOMA, CA (July 6, 2005) - When she was teaching a Sunday school class for
girls in the fourth through sixth grades in the 1960s, Elvira Anderson
had no way of knowing that one of the children someday would be
nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Nor could the rest of the congregation at Bethany Covenant Church in Mt.
Vernon, Washington, know that the girl who experienced their
unconditional love - even though her parents never attended the church -
would someday impact the lives of poor, forgotten women around the world.
Candi Horton Smucker has been nominated for the peace prize as part of
"1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005." Organizers of the project
say they have nominated the women as a group as a way to honor all women
who contribute to peace in small ways. The group notes that only 12
women have received the peace prize since it was first awarded in 1901.
Smucker was nominated for her role in developing fair trade markets for
women in Third World countries. Her work has brought her to countries
such as Bangladesh and Peru. The idea behind fair trade is to provide a
sustainable wage to artisans in developing nations. The nominee believes
that her early Sunday school teacher should be included in the list of
1,000 women. "This woman was pivotal to me staying in the church,
growing in the church and growing in my faith," Smucker says.
Anderson is a short, round woman with white hair who never married and
was the principal of an elementary school, Smucker recalls with
affection. She also had a great love for her students. "I wish I had
known her as an adult," she says.
Smucker attended the church through high school while attending camps,
being active in the youth group, teaching Sunday school and attending
CHIC. "If that church had not been there, I wouldn't be here today,"
Smucker says. "It was foundational for me." The fact that there was
unconditional love inspired Smucker's passion for helping others, she
says. "Everyone was so open to me."
In 1987, Smucker became interested in fair trade after a woman at the
Mennonite church she was attending in Chicago asked her to attend a
meeting in the small Illinois town of Gridley to hear how fair trade
helps people in other countries sustain a living. "I just sat in the
back of the room and cried," Smucker recalls.
Within six months she had quit her job as an executive at a Christian
retail company in Chicago to help open what would later become a Ten
Thousand Villages store in Glen Ellyn. Since that time, she traveled the
country as a volunteer "store planter" and opened five other stores with
the Mennonite Central Committee. Ten Thousand Villages is a job creation
program for artisans in Third World countries. In addition to opening
the stores, Smucker authored a training manual and trained 150 store
owners.
Along with her husband, Brian, Smucker now owns Baksheesh (a Persian
word for gratuity and respect), which is a fair trade store with outlets
in Sonoma and Healdsburg, California. The store sells home dŽcor items
made by women in developing countries.
Smucker says she is excited to be nominated for the prize, adding that
"all 1,000 women believe there are 1,000 women behind us." And that
includes her favorite Sunday school teacher.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
