Pioneer Valley Local First

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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.