4th Annual

Local Lover Challenge!

It's time again for the Local Lover Challenge. The Challenge runs through the holiday season, culminating in our Grand Prize drawing the week after Christmas. 

Choose local and independent this season! Let’s build an annual tradition that strengthens local economies, expands employment, nurtures a sense of community, and provides a more relaxed, fun, and rewarding gift-buying experience.

Participating Businesses

15 Steps     3 D-Light     Alternatives Federal Credit Union       

AJ Foreign Auto    Alphabet Soup       

Angry Mom Records/Small World Music           

August Moon Spa     Autumn Leaves     Avanti       

Bellwether Hard Cider     Benjamin Peters     Bodyworks      

Buffalo St. Books      Cobbler’s Cottage        

Decorum Too      Diaspora       Evolution      

Felicia’s Atomic Lounge      

 Finger Lakes Reuse Center    Finger Lakes Running Co.     

Garden Gate Delivery      

Gnomon Copy       Good To Go! Trumansburg Market      

GreenStar Cooperative Market        

Handwork     Holiday Spirit Store       Home Green Home       

Homespun Boutique    House of Shalimar      Ithaca Bakery      

Ithaca Carshare     Ithaca Farmers’ Market     

Ithaca Grain & Pet Supply      

Ithacamade     Jillian’s Drawers      Life’s So Sweet       

Loose Threads       Mama Goose     Mighty Yoga      Mimi’s Attic      

Northstar House      Oasis Natural Grocery    Quilters Corner     

Rasa Spa       Red Feet Wine Market     Rogues Harbor Inn

Sea Change Chiropractic      Silk Oak      Sparrow's Fine Wines

Spirit and Kitsch      Sustainable Passion   The Bookery      

The Cat’s Pajamas      The Frame Shop on Buffalo St.

The Jewelbox       Toko Imports        TShirt Express

Shift Your Shopping!

Let’s build an annual tradition that strengthens local economies, expands employment, nurtures a sense of community, and provides a more relaxed, fun, and rewarding gift-buying experience.

If you join us in shifting those dollars to locally owned, independent businesses, we’ll all generate 2-3 times as much economic activity in our community than if we had spent our money at a national chain.

This holiday season, Local First Ithaca is joining with local living economy alliances around the country to promote the "Shift Your Shopping" campaign. For more info check out http://shiftyourshopping.org/2011/

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Local First Ithaca

Presents

An Evening with Michael Shuman

"Revitalizing Our Regional Economy

from the Inside Out"

Tuesday, October 25th, 7pm.

at the Community School of Music and Art

330 E. State St/MLK

_______________________________

Local First Ithaca is pleased to present an evening with Michael Shuman.

As the federal government runs out of plausible stimulus solutions to the nation’s persistent unemployment crisis, a new set of options is beginning to emerge at the local level across America. The real solutions, argues economist and author Michael Shuman, already exist in our local communities.

Shuman is the author of three books: Going Local (1998), The Small-Mart Revolution (2006), and Local Dollars, Local Sense (2012). He shows that the key to creating jobs is to abandon ineffective traditional economic-development policies that emphasize the attraction and retention of nonlocal business and to support local businesses through sensible policies promoting local investing, purchasing, entrepreneurship, and partnerships.

This event is made possbile through a grant from the Park Foundation and additional contributions from GreenStar Cooperative Market. It is free and open to the public. Be prepared for a lively and engaging evening!

Registration is free. To register or for more info visit:

http://revitalizeoureconomy.eventbrite.com/

Hello Etsy Ithaca Conference

Local First Ithaca, BALLE and Etsy Collaborate 

Hello Etsy: A Summit on Small Business and Sustainability is a hands-on gathering for all small business owners who want to connect with their peers, learn the skills to find success and independence, and be part of the movement to build human-scale economies.

Date: Sunday, September 18, 10 to 6 pm

Location: Southside Community Center

Local First Ithaca is thrilled to be hosting a DIY Summit in Ithaca at Southside Community Center. We are in the midst of working within our community and planning out a great day for attendees. The day will consist of streaming keynote sessions from Hello Etsy locations around the world, as well as live, in person workshops.

 Workshops will include:

Branding on a Shoestring

Social Media Bootcamp

PR Strategies for Small Businesses

Intro to Product & Promotional Photography

Beyond Branding: Crafting your Narrative

Building a Starter Website

Plus, more to be announced. 

There will also be a Big Picture track on creating a Sustainable, Local Living Economy. These will include Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org, Judy Wicks on Building Community through Local Living Economy and Tom Greenham of the New Economics Foundation on Business As If People Mattered.

As an added bonus, we will end the day with a Community Mixer! Sign up now and stay tuned for news of our full scedule of events.

http://helloetsyithaca.eventbrite.com/

Hello Etsy Ithaca is brought to you by Local First Ithaca, Downtown Ithaca Alliance, GreenStar Cooperative Market and Ithaca Localistas (our Ithaca Etsy Team).

Local Grain+Local Flour=Local Bread!

Wide Awake Bakery

Sells Breadshares

Wide Awake Bakery, in Mecklenburg, is taking a different route from oven to table. Instead of looking on your local store shelves, Wide Awake is selling their bread through "Breadshares". Like a CSA share, a breadshare gives you bread each week, either picked up with your CSA share or at a distribution spot in T-burg or Ithaca.

Their breads are primarily made with local, Farmer Ground Flour and baked in their wood fired oven. The ultimate local loaf! Make sure to check out their website for loads of information delivered with a hefty dose of enthusiasm and humor. http://wideawakebakery.com/

So far, Sweetland Farm and Westhaven Farm are two CSA's that are offering their breads, with more to come. This Tuesday saw the first distribution in T-burg at Good to Go Market. This Friday, April 8th, will be the first one in Ithaca at Ithacamade, located in the old Bishop's building next to Mama Goose. Stop by Ithacamade from 3-6 pm to taste some delicious samples and sign up for your share.

Then, while your in the neighborhood, stop on over at Felicia's for old time night. The ultimate springtime, local evening. We can't wait!

Local First Ithaca & Friends Present

the 1^st Annual

 Take Off Your Clothes For Earth Day

Clothing Swap-O-Rama!

 Saturday, April 23, 10-6pm

At GreenStar’s The Space

 Clean out your Closets for Earth Day! Learn to upcycle old clothes into fabulous, new garments, quilts, toys, purses… Attend one of the cool Workshops- Learn how to silkscreen, use a sewing machine, make a headband, purse, Try your hand at Button Making and lots more!

Keep Clothing out of the waste stream, Learn a new Skill and Create Community. Stitch n’ Bitch, here we come!

Interested in volunteering, teaching a workshop, helping pull it all together, have lots of fun? Let us know by emailing us at localfirstithaca@gmail.com

Proceeds to Benefit Sew Green & GIAC’s Teen Program Poppin Collars

The movie "The Economics of Happiness" coming to Ithaca soon!

Economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. It has also worsened nearly every problem we face: fundamentalism and ethnic conflict; climate chaos and species extinction; financial instability and unemployment. There are personal costs too. For the majority of people on the planet, life is becoming increasingly stressful. We have less time for friends and family and we face mounting pressures at work.

 The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, an unholy alliance of governments and big business continues to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, people all over the world are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance—and, far from the old institutions of power, they’re starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together to re-build more human scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm – an economics of localization.

 The film shows how globalization breeds cultural self-rejection, competition and divisiveness; how it structurally promotes the growth of slums and urban sprawl; how it is decimating democracy. We learn about the obscene waste that results from trade for the sake of trade: apples sent from the UK to South Africa to be washed and waxed, then shipped back to British supermarkets; tuna caught off the coast of America, flown to Japan to be processed, then flown back to the US. We hear about the suicides of Indian farmers; about the demise of land-based cultures in every corner of the world.

 The second half of The Economics of Happiness provides not only inspiration, but practical solutions. Arguing that economic localization is a strategic solution multiplier that can solve our most serious problems, the film spells out the policy changes needed to enable local businesses to survive and prosper. We are introduced to community initiatives that are moving the localization agenda forward, including urban gardens in Detroit, Michigan and the Transition Town movement in Totnes, UK. We see the benefits of an expanding local food movement that is restoring biological diversity, communities and local economies worldwide. And we are introduced to Via Campesina, the largest social movement in the world, with more than 400 million members.

 We hear from a chorus of voices from six continents, including Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, David Korten, Samdhong Rinpoche, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Michael Shuman, Zac Goldsmith and Keibo Oiwa. They tell us that climate change and peak oil give us little choice: we need tolocalize, to bring the economy home. The good news is that as we move in this direction we will begin not only to heal the earth but also to restore our own sense of well-being. The Economics of Happiness challenges us to restore our faith in humanity, challenges us to believe that it is possible to build a better world.

Nationwide Survey Shows IBAs / Local First Campaigns Are Providing Huge Boost to Indie Businesses