“My One Square Mile” & the Travelling Coffehouse

June 27, 2007

In a unique combination of traveling roadshow and fundraising for educational projects in poverty stricken locations, the “My One Square Mile” project presents Brewster’s Traveling Coffehouse on August 4th at the Sauble Beach community centre, located behind the tourist information booth in Sauble. My One Square Mile is the brainchild of Sharon “Zappha” Barfoot who, according to the website, thought, “if I could inspire people to adopt one square mile (metaphorically) of our planet and become stewards of that square mile, then we could make a difference……one square mile at a time.”

A prime example of the sort of difference My One Square Mile hopes to make is their partnership project with the Jai Dee Children’s Fund which involves the refurbishing a kindergarten school in Southern Laos, located on Kong Island in the middle of the Mekong River. This refurbishing has thus far resulted in the building of washrooms, and the beginnings of a lunch program in which the students themselves learn to grow and maintain a garden. The organization has built a fence to protect the precious veggies from water buffalo. Extra produce will be sold locally to help maintain the school. In addition, My One Square Mile produces photo novellas that transcend language to educate about poverty and the potential for improvement. They hope to send the photo novellas out to galleries and coffee shops to help raise awareness.

To fund these fantastic projects Zappha combined her My One Square Mile concept with her desire to help independant musicians get exposure. In the name of raising funds and giving exposure to indie musicians, the Brewster’s Traveling Coffehouse was created.

Brewster’s is a coffeehouse with a difference. We still bring excellent coffee, food and entertainment to you, but we do not have a permanent location. We bring the coffeehouse to your town; your location.

Our mandate is to support indie musicians by featuring them at various locations. Our roster of musicians is growning each day.

All the profits go to support the My One Square Mile Project. Currently, our projects take place in Central America, Nepal, India and Laos. Our focus is education in each of these locations.
~Zappha Barfoot

Performers for the evening include: Peter J. Slack, Royal Wood, Terry Golletz, Jon Brooks, David Rankine and Gillian Thomas, and Marianne Girard. Tickets for the evening are 15$. The evening is sponsored by MacBeth’s Cafe and Bakery in Sauble Beach and Peninsula Ford in Owen Sound.

For more information visit the My One Square Mile Website, email info[@]myonesqaremile.com or phone Zappha at (519) 422-0007.