The Woods

By Emma Campbell
Staff Writer

The White Violet Center for Eco Justice has stepped into the online era by selling their alpaca wool and other organic products on the popular website, Etsy.
The White Violet Center joined this online community in Aug. of 2009.
Etsy is an online store and community where users create an account and may buy or sell items which are, in most cases, hand-made. The shop is entitled The White Violet Center Alpacas.
In their shop, the White Violet Center is selling yarn spun from alpaca fleece, ornaments, knitted hats, and beeswax lip balm.
All products sold in their shop are made from the alpacas and bees located on campus, with the exception of some yarn being made from donated fleece from the   Forsythe Family Farm in Marshall, Ill.
When someone buys a product from the White Violet Center’s shop, they also receive information about where the product came from. Each garment purchase includes a picture of the animal and the name of the fiber artist who created it and most yarn labels have a picture of the animal whose fleece was used.
By creating an online store, the WVC is able to spread their message of the importance of organic and ‘green’ projects to help our environment, with a much larger audience.
According to an article on Newsweek, Etsy has proven to be financially beneficial to its store owners. In 2009, four years after Etsy’s launch, customers bought $180.6 million worth of merchandise.
Sales in 2010 have already exceeded that figure.  The White Violet Center’s Etsy store may be found at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/WhiteVioletAlpacas

Popularity: 20% [?]

By Zahra Adni
Staff Writer

If you are interested in how to live sustainably in Terre Haute, the Green Map isa new project that will help you do just that.
The Green Map has a full map of Terre Haute and West Terre Haute that highlights certain businesses by using points.  Each point is color coordinated and the list of businesses is then broken down by type of product/good it provides.
The businesses that are displayed are locally owned businesses, green artists, parks and green spaces, recycling facilities/re-sale stores, and eco-friendly transportation.
The idea for the Green Map was started by Laura Perticara while volunteering for the White Violet Center.
With help from Candace Minster, the fiber coordinator for the White Violet Center, and Christina Blust, graphic designer for the Sisters of Providence, the three of them created what is now the Terre Haute Green Map.
Perticara came up with the idea in November 2009 during the time when the White Violet Center starts preparing for the annual Earth Day celebration.

“The idea for the Green Map was there but there were not a lot of organizing thoughts behind it,” Minster said.
She realized that there needed to be mediating criteria that would differentiate between the corporate business and the locally-owned ones; whether they had the qualities needed to be “eco-friendly”.
The businesses that were chosen for the map had to directly offer consumers some benefit in regards to sustainability such as organic groceries and even artwork made from sustainably harvested supplies.
The Earth Day event planning for the White Violet Center led Perticara and Minster to research the Terre Haute community for businesses with the qualities needed.
“The criterion in the beginning [to be on the map] was very broad,” explained Minster.
They wanted a useful tool that would let consumers know where to go to get organic food and environmentally friendly products.  The main focus was on locally owned businesses over corporations.
The Green Map is an information packet that highlights businesses in the Terre Haute area that supported sustainability.
It has an eye-catching layout and design scheme, courtesy of Blust, and all that is left is to get the map to the consumers and the businesses.
The Terre Haute Green Map is available at the White Violet Center for Eco-Justice. However the map is still under construction and the businesses that are listed in the map are not currently carrying them.
Minster said that the Visitors and Conventions bureau of Indiana will even carry the map once it is completed.
For more information on the Green Map and the White Violet Center for eco-justice visit their website at www.whiteviolet.org.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Providence Vincennes, also known as Vinnie, sits beside his mother, Providence Providentia, shortly after his birth on Aug. 24. / Photo by Colleen Daum

By Annie Jones

Staff Writer

(Appeared in the Sept. 7 print edition of The Woods)

The campus and community is welcoming a new member to the alpaca family. The Sisters of Providence and the White Violet Center call him Providence Vincennes, or “Vinnie” for short. The new baby alpaca, or cria, was born on a warm, sunny morning around 11 a.m. on Aug. 24.

He weighed in at a total of 13.5 lbs. He was born healthy and very active. Within about 20 minutes of Vinnie’s birth he was up standing and nursing from his mother. Providence Providentia, also known as Tia, is a first-time mother and is only about four years old. The father is Gray’s Pride. Soon after finding his balance Vinnie was bounding and leaping off the ground.

For those who don’t know much or anything about alpacas, they are members of the camelid family which includes llamas and camels.  Alpacas are native to South America in the Andes Mountains of Peru and Chile.

Vinnie takes off running around the pasture after he was born. / Photo by Annie Jones

So what are they doing in Indiana then? The Sisters of Providence and the White Violet Center utilize all the by-products of the alpacas for funding projects around the campus and are part of the sisters’ sustainable community. Examples of the by-products include their fiber for hats and gloves and their excrement for fertilizer.

They now regulate all breeding for the alpacas to help with population control and pasture space. This fall the White Violet Center and the Sisters of Providence were expecting two crias. While one baby, Vinnie, has already graced us with his presence we will soon be welcoming another member to the alpaca family. Samantha, an expecting mother, is due Oct. 14.

Popularity: 80% [?]