This year the Think Local First Campaign will run from Friday, November 27, 2009 through December 18, 2009 which is greatly expanded from last year’s one week campaign. Our goal is to include each town as they celebrate their First, Second & Third Friday’s respectively during the holiday season.

As locally founded and operated businesses, the Susquehanna Sustainable Business Network believes that the Think Local First Campaign is critically important to our community. Locally based businesses not only create much greater economic impact than non-local businesses but also contribute more per employee to local charitable efforts in both dollars and time commitment, and contribute much more to our unique sense of place.

We hope that residents of Lancaster & York counties will respond to the campaign that helps them identify local businesses and the reasons for choosing those businesses in purchasing products and services. The purpose of the Think Local First Campaign is to do just that.

We are once again hosting a Lumpkin Scavenger Hunt just as we did last year. How does the Scavenger Hunt work?

Once you identify yourself as a participating business (see below), we will ask you to hide a Local Lumpkin (story on website) somewhere in your store. During the campaign weeks, shoppers are encouraged to purchase punch cards (with identified businesses). During the three weeks, shoppers will be encouraged to visit as many independents as they can. When a shopper gets at least 25 visits, including at least 2 from each of the participating local towns, the back of the passport is filled in and left with any participating business location making the shopper eligible to win a fabulous prize.

The goal of the scavenger hunt is to:

• Give people the opportunity to know about your location, browse your store and become familiar with your products.
• Make holiday/gift purchases while they are there or to remember to come back for future purchases.

Thank you to the sponsorship of our Downtown/Mainstreet organizations for making this happen. We encourage shoppers to combine their shopping with the many fun and family oriented events happening throughout Lancaster and York Counties during this three week campaign. We also hope that friends will carpool and make a day or a night of shopping by eating at their favorite local, independent restaurant and visit their local independents. So much fun to find new places and unique gifts.

Thank you for joining us in this important effort. Feel free to email either Sam or Lydia with further questions:

Locally yours,

Susquehanna Sustainable Business Network

Sam Droke-Dickinson, Administrative Director

Julie Fitzpatrick, Fritz Schroeder, Matthew Cleveland, Gene Aleci, Laura Lamar, Sarah Lanphier, Dennis Kready and Patrick Kirkham