As early shoppers admire displays of hand-made jewelry, Taylor Mosier hovers nearby, waiting to answer questions about the products, the event, or the causes it supports.

“I hope people are really touched by the stories of the women, and how they are trying to improve their lives,” she said. Mosier and her classmates, a Current Issues class from Two Rivers School, have been affected by those stories enough to throw this party, a fundraiser that will help both local families, and Ugandan women and their children.

At the Bead for Life (www.beadforlife.org) party, Thursday, May 10 at the Black Dog Snoqualmie, students not only sold the finished products from the non-profit organization, hand-made bead jewelry and shea butter products, they also demonstrated what goes into the making of the jewelry.

Christian Holt and Zack Tregloun huddled at a nearby table, slowly colored the edges of paper strips, rolled them into tight coils, and finished them with glue and varnish.

Holt holds up a just-varnished bead. “That looks a lot better now, doesn’t it?” he asked.

He adds it to his small collection of finished beads, about a dozen in all.

This demonstration is how many Ugandan women are starting to improve their lives, through Bead for Life. The organization pays them a fair trade wage for their products, either hand-made beads from recycled paper, or gathered shea nuts to be made into soaps and lip balms, and teaches them, at no cost to the women, how to manage money and start their own businesses. Bead for Life also offers community development grants, and further training in entrepreneurship.

What teacher Elise Cooksley was most impressed with about Bead for Life, though, was how much funding goes to help people, rather than administrative costs.

“They’ll keep 80 percent of what we send them after today, for their programs,” she said, “and they send 20 percent of it back to a charity of (the students’) choice, and they chose the Mount Si Food Bank.”

At the cashier’s table, Vanessa Scott talks knowledgeably about the project, and her class’s goals for their event. “Our goal would be to sell everything,” she said. “We chose this project because it has a more direct effect on people… instead of handing out charity, you employ people.”

She totals one woman’s purchase, and then adds, “Plus, we like the product. It’s pretty!”

Above, Taylor Mosier points out for a shopper some of the hand-made bead necklaces for sale during her class’s Bead for Life Party.

Below, working together, Christian Holt, right, and Zack Tregloun, demonstrate how Ugandan woman make beads from recycled paper, to earn an income for their families.