whole town there was one small shop

Roots, Canada’s iconic fashion and lifestyle brand will be available at Target stores for a limited time starting in March.

Canadian Target stores are slated to begin opening in March and April 2013. The Target stores are opening in locations formerly occupied by Zellers.

In keeping with the department store’s “expect more, pay less” philosophy the stores will also sell home brands from interior designer and daytime TV host Nate Berkus and Cordon Bleu chef and New York Times bestselling cookbook author Giada De Laurentiis. They travelled to Toronto for the announcement along with cosmetic innovator Sonia Kashuk, who has been associated with Target for 14 years. De Laurentiis, who is a personality on the Food Network has been associated with Target for three years. The department store chain will also sell a collection of clothing, shoes and accessories from pro-snowboarder and skateboarder Shaun White, who creates the collection of athletic-inspired clothing with his brother Jesse.

White wasn’t able to attend the event because he is competing in the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colo., but greeted the guests at the Evergreen Brickworks hall by video, telling the audience, “I’ve had the best times in Canada.”

L.A. stylist-to-the-stars Kate Young, who has created looks for celebrities including Natalie Portman, will offer Target a line of affordable women’s apparel and accessories as well as special-occasion dresses available from April 14 to the end of May.

Roots owners Michael Budman and Don Green say they will offer a collection of hoodies and sweat pants for men, women and children at Canada’s Target stores.

Budman and Green, who have historically prided themselves on their “made in Canada” commitment, admit this collection for Target was made in Asia. Budman laments it is a reality of the current retailing landscape that even elements of their regular collections are now made offshore. “It’s the way of the world,” he says.

In November of last year I travelled to Ecuador with 10 other students and 3 teachers, altogether the group had raised over $2000 for the community of Santa Marianita.

The first week of our trip we lived in this very small community of 200 people and helped build a playground and tables and chairs for the small school, the community was deep in the mountains of the cloud forest area.

In the whole town there was one small shop that sold shoes and convenience items like snacks.

The money that we all took went towards the materials that built the playground and the furniture.

Last September I had a cake stall outside the IGA and raised $450. I was very thankful that the Boorowa community helped provide almost a quarter of the funds that went into the project.
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After spending a week in this small community we then said our goodbyes and moved on to climb the active volcano called Cotopaxi and reached a height of over 5000 metres.

We trekked around the national park that surrounded it, riding mountain bikes down the winding road of the volcano to the large lake about a 1km away. After this we had another hot week in the Amazon where we went down one of the tributaries and went wildlife spotting in the humid rainforest.

We all arrived back in Sydney dressed in colourful clothes that we bartered for in the busy markets of Otavalo, tired and ready to get home for Christmas.