NEW HOLLAND, Pa. — When she joined a craft club at Garden Spot Village, Gladys Ziegenfus never imagined that she might someday be part of an international enterprise.

Ziegenfus is part of a group of residents at the Village’s Mountain View personal care community who make soap, press flowers and do other handicrafts, including tea bag folding. The group recently made a connection with Ten Thousand Villages and has a meeting scheduled this month with Melissa Hand, a buyer for the global fair trade retailer, to talk about folded paper designs for a group of women in Bangladesh.

“The Mountain View craft group is becoming a kind of idea development workshop for Melissa and the paper-making workshops” in Bangladesh, said Deborah Fast, director of volunteer services at Garden Spot Village. Prior to joining theteam at the retirement community a year ago, Fast worked for Ten Thousand Villages as a buyer and as creative director.