Get behind local
The people who bring you the Advocate each month couldn’t be more local. Each of our regulars, from writers to editors, graphic designers, photographers and the publisher, all live in Kawartha Lakes. We think that’s important.
While some businesses or institutions may be okay with people driving in to do their work here, then driving home somewhere else, we don’t believe that’s good enough. We think it’s a detriment to smaller communities, like ours, which absolutely depend on the full participation of its citizens.
Even larger centres, like those in Durham Region, certainly lose out when folks there head to Toronto every day to work. There are divided loyalties. There is less sense of place to encourage people to be engaged, such as joining a local committee or board doing important work.
Similarly, within our communities, there are advantages to getting behind truly local shopping. That means more Kindred and Fresh Fuell and less Tim Horton’s. That means more Nisbett’s Clothiers or Cathy Allan and less Tip Top in Peterborough or Ricki’s-Bootlegger at Lindsay Square Mall.
The BIA in Lindsay has a wonderful annual program involving its “Holiday Passport” to encourage downtown shopping. From Nov. 18 to Dec. 18, customers can visit eight different businesses in the downtown and with any purchase, they will receive a stamp. Once they have collected eight stamps from different businesses, customers can drop their “passport” in a ballot box at marked locations. Doing so enters them to potentially win a weekly prize draw of downtown gift certificates ranging from $250 all the way up to $1,500.
As well, local chambers of commerce from Lindsay and area, Fenelon Falls, Bobcaygeon and Coboconk-Norland all proudly promote their communities, some with similar passport programs to get people thinking downtown.
That’s because most downtown businesses are run by your neighbours. When you support them, you’re supporting a dream — not a corporate bottom line. Let’s all be more mindful of where our dollars go, not only this month, but in the new year, too.
