Buy Local Bear makes debut to promote program
With bear sightings becoming more common in the area, it didn’t seem out of the ordinary that one more should occur. What was different about it was the venue – the Fay-Penn Economic Development Council quarterly board meeting Friday at the Holiday Inn.
Only the bear – an unidentified Fay-Penn employee dressed in a cuddly costume – had a different agenda.
Fay-Penn used its meeting to introduce the Buy Local Bear, a mascot for its recently opened Buy Local Campaign, a program aimed at keeping consumer dollars in the county.
“You can tell people the Buy Local Bear will be coming to their communities,” Bob Junk, Fay-Penn local economy manager, said.
Fay-Penn Economic Development Council and the Herald-Standard are partnering on the program, which includes a Buy Local Card.
The program encourages consumers to patronize local businesses, keeping dollars in the community and improving the area economy.
According to Jessica Steimer, Fay-Penn sustainable communities specialist, more than 70 local businesses, including car dealers, restaurants, hair salons, retail merchants, farms, printing companies and pharmacies, are offering discounts to customers using the new card, such as straight discounts on services, dollars off their product and two-for-one deals.
“We are also working with Connellsville and Uniontown on their Independence Day celebrations to have a Buy Local presence,” Steimer said. The second edition of a monthly newsletter updating people about the campaign will be published Sunday in the Herald-Standard, Steimer added.
Goals of the Fayette County Buy Local Network are to create a community of businesses that gives preference to local sources, to provide healthy workplaces with meaningful living-wage jobs for Fayette County employees, to offer customers high-quality products and services, to emphasize enhancing the quality-of-life experience of their customers through outstanding customer service, to establish a fair exchange between suppliers and their customers and to encourage the cooperation of local businesses in ways that balance their interests with their obligation to the community and future generations.
“It is the goal of the network to raise awareness and to educate county residents about the importance of buying local,” Junk said. He added the network is supported by aggressive marketing and public relations efforts.
One of those is the Buy Local Bear. Junk said a second mascot will be announced later.
“We have been holding monthly meetings with our steering committee and have been getting a lot of comments from businesses about the traffic they are getting. They didn’t expect it to take off as quickly as it did,” Junk said.
In addition to the discount card, the Buy Local program features prize giveaways, community reinvestment through grants and is creating more farmers’ markets where consumers can buy locally grown and produced-fresh foods.
Junk said two of the farmer’s markets – in Ohiopyle and Masontown – have opened and two more, in Connellsville and Uniontown, will open next week. The first 25 customers at the farmer’s markets’ openings will receive a $5 coupon to use at the market.
“We are not asking people to spend more money, but asking residents to make a pledge that they will buy local by supporting locally owned business and farmers,” Junk said.
Businesses interested in joining the network can call Steimer at 724-437-7913, extension 222.
More information on the Buy Local program is available online at www.heraldstandard.com and www.howyouspinit.com.
Fay-Penn also approved applications for a $35,000 grant to promote the farmer’s markets and a $61,750 grant to educate employees who are at the front line in meeting tourists in the area.