Spirit Of The Amazon Party To Raise Funds For Amazon Rainforest Conservation And Native Communities

May 20, 2011 - PRLog -- The Center for Amazon Community Ecology is hosting a benefit party called Spirit of the Amazon at 7:30 pm on Saturday, May 21 to raise funds for programs to support rainforest conservation and native communities in the Amazon.  The party will be held at the home of John Tait and Dorothy Habecker at 121 Tait Rd. – 3 miles east of Boalsburg, PA on Rt. 322.  The event will feature South American foods, a display and sale of Amazon handicrafts and photographs, live video chat and craft demonstration by two Bora native artisans in Peru, and live music with improv percussion group Tr-HANDS-formation around a bonfire.  Limited space is available for a pre-party Ecuadorian cooking class. Regular tickets are $40; students $20.  Tickets available at Nature’s Pantry, Tait Farm Harvest Store and Wiscoy for Animals, and online at http://amazonecology.org/support/SOTA%20page.html.  For more information about the event or the Center, visit www.amazonecology.org, email: info@amazonecology.org, or call (814) 380-1959.

South American foods to be served at the party include “juanes de pollo” (a spicy chicken and rice dish typically served in the Peruvian Amazon during the Festival of San Juan), “arroz con menestra” (a favorite dish from the coast of Ecuador that includes fish, rice and lentils), “empanadas de carne” (spicy beef in a crescent pastry shell made in Peru and Argentina), "carne seca" and "mandioca" (a classical Brazilian dish), fried plantains, and mango salad.
 
The event will feature a live video conversation with two Bora native artisans in Peru.  These women are Felicita Butuna Chichaco and Ines Chichaco who are both from the village of Brillo Nuevo in the Ampiyacu River region.  They will show the natural plant dyes they use to color the fibers of chambira palm trees and demonstrate how they weave them into products such as the Amazon guitar strap. The conversation will be moderated by Yully Rojas, manager of the CACE project that works with this and other communities to develop and sell innovative handicrafts.  See http://amazonecology.wordpress.com/category/amazon-artisa... for a profile of Felicita Butuna.  

Spirit of the Amazon will also have a display and sale of handicrafts made by its four partner communities in Peru and Brazil.  These crafts include a variety of woven baskets, shopping bags, hot-pads, and snake-design belts and guitar straps.  (Visit http://amazonecology.org/products/documents/Amazon%20guit... for a brochure about the Amazon guitar strap;  visit http://amazonecology.org/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=1 to see photos of guitar straps, artisan and Pennsylvania guitarists with these straps).  CACE returns 20% of craft sales to its partner communities to support their health, education and forest conservation needs. See http://www.youtube.com/user/amazonecology#p/a/u/2/2JmaMlmY90A for a video about the Center’s work with artisans in Peru.

The improvisation group Tr-HANDS-formation will play at Spirit of the Amazon around a bonfire at 9 pm.  This group which features a wide variety of percussion instruments will include its Rainforest song in its offerings for the gathering.  Visit http://www.youtube.com/user/amazonecology#p/u/5/w2RYzr-nuy0 to see video interviews with the members of this group and their reasons for supporting this event.

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CACE (http://www.amazonecology.org/) is a non-profit group that promotes understanding, conservation, and sustainable development of human and other biological communities in the Amazon region. We study the ecology, sustainable harvest and marketing of tropical forest products, assist forest-based peoples to sustain local resources and strengthen their communities, and help connect Amazon communities with partners in the U.S. and elsewhere to support forest conservation and other local development goals.

CACE conducts research, community support, and education programs focused on studying non-timber forest products (like resins, fruits and fibers) and assisting traditional forest communities to sell value-added products to support local development and conservation. We now assist several native communities in Peru to sustainably harvest aromatic copal resin and distill it into a marketable fragrant oil and also help them create and sell innovative handicrafts like guitar straps.