Pioneer Valley Local First

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Comment by aaron vega on March 31, 2010 at 7:23am

Our next Steering Committee Meeting will be Monday, April 5, from 7 to 9pm at Broadside Bookshop at 247 Main St in Northampton. The Steering Committee is open to all PVLF members. Come join us and offer your input with your fellow Pioneer Valley business owners!

There are several exciting events coming up in April. On Thursday, April 8, at 7 pm Dave Bonta will discuss his recent book The New Solar Home at the Odyssey Bookshop located in the Village Commons in South Hadley. Please see our site at www.odysseybks.com and click here for more information.
On April 17 & 18 is the Franklin County Home Show
and Green Fair. It will take place at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in Greenfield, please click here for more details. WGBY is presenting nine days of programming
celebrating the 40TH Anniversary of Earth Day, culminating with a concert at the Academy of Music in Northampton with Dar Williams and Patty Larkin on April 25. For more details, please click here.

Our Pioneer Valley Local Business Guide has been out for several months and has received rave reviews. If your business needs more guides to give out to your customers, please be in touch.

Comment by aaron vega on February 8, 2010 at 1:28pm

NEXT MEETING

Dear Pioneer Valley Local First Member,

Just a quick reminder that the next Steering committee meeting will be at 6 PM on Monday, February 8, 2010 at the Northampton Brewery and will be followed at 7:30 PM by networking and locally-brewed beer. The Steering Committee is open to all PVLF members. Come join us and offer your input and have a beer with your fellow Pioneer Valley business owners!

And last, but certainly not least, THANK YOU for everything you have done and are doing to make our valley a great place to live! We are honored to be in this together.


Thank you.

The Steering Committee

Nancy Felton -- Broadside Books, 413-586-4235
Mitch Gaslin -- Food for Thought Books, 413-253-5432
Joan Grenier -- Odyssey Bookshop, 413-534-7307
Dan Finn 413-364-7266
Kirsten Bonanza -- Earththrives.com

www.pvLocalFirst.org

Comment by aaron vega on February 4, 2010 at 7:50pm

If anyone needs some guides and a lovely display box let me know. We have a bunch over at vegayoga. Businesses can still join online and I hope there is a larger Holyoke presence in the next book.

Comment by Anna Rigali on January 14, 2010 at 2:33pm

Hey, I looked throught guide and noticed there are many Holyoke businesses that are not in there. How do businesses go about getting listed?

Comment by aaron vega on November 16, 2009 at 7:30am

Dear Members and friends of Pioneer Valley Local First,

The Pioneer Valley's Local Business Guide, A Free Local & Green Business
Directory to connect people searching for local businesses will be available
December 1st at many of our member businesses [1]!!! This will be a great tool
to help consumers think local first and shop with locally owned, independent
businesses this Holiday and Christmas season.

In a time of global economic insecurity, it is that much more important that
we each take care of where we live. The Pioneer Valley is where we call home
and by people thinking local first and shopping with local, independent
businesses we will stabilize and sustainably grow our economy. A study in West
Michigan found that if people could shop locally just 10% more often that it
would keep an extra 53 million dollars in the local economy and create 1,600
new jobs. Even with some of the strongest and earliest Buy Local campaigns in
the country, it's still been hard for people here to sort out conflicting
claims in regards to what businesses are locally owned.

Problem solved: Our guide lists more than 220 Pioneer Valley-based businesses
and nonprofits with local ownership and a commitment to taking care of our
region. Additionally, the guide includes several informative articles about the
benefits of buying locally, environmental sustainability, support of local
farms, and getting Fair Trade products at local businesses. Hadley Printing, a
century-old local printing firm that uses clean hydropower and environmentally
certified paper, is printing 20,000 copies that will be distributed through
Chambers of Commerce, real estate agents, and listed member businesses. We hope
you will go to one of our member businesses to pick up our Buy Local Guide. A
huge thank you to Big Y World Class Market and our community partner Hampden
Bank for being Major Sponsors of our Local Business Guide. Thank you also to
Alexis, Glenn and Jennifer for all of your amazing work!!

In addition to the print version of our Buy Local Guide, you can always use
our on-line search tool to find products and services from local businesses.

To all of you who are members, please support Pioneer Valley Local First by
adding a button to your Web site. Just copy and paste the HTML code from
http://www.pvlocalfirst.org/link-to-us [2] into your home page. Thank you!!

Lastly, please goto PV Local First's page on youtube [3] and subscribe to our
channel. Additionally, click on the Favorites button to see more than 60 great
videos!!

This Thanksgiving, we thank you for shopping Local First!!!

Daniel Finn

Comment by aaron vega on November 9, 2009 at 8:23am

Save the date! On Monday evening, Nov. 30, join us at the Northampton Brewery to celebrate for the launch of our Buy Local First Guide!

Dear Friends,

Great News!

We finally have our local business guide at the printers. It looks fantastic! We are printing 20,000 copies and want to start distributng them on Monday, November 30th, 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM at the Northampton Brewery. Come join us. Pick up your copies of the guide and window decals.The Brewery is once again providing us with some delicious food.

Come meet other like-minded local business folks and get involved in the future of PVLF.

Thanks to all people who made this possible.