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A New Winner, and a Big New Supporter
Market opens tonight with two exciting pieces of news…
First, CONGRATULATIONS to Sandy Ehrlich, the winner of October’s Refer-a-Friend drawing! Keep those referrals coming, and we’ll draw again in November… just in time for Christmas shopping!!
Second, here’s the perfect example of what is possible when people look locally for their needs, both personal and business…
Martha Pierce of Huber Heights was searching for a source of raw, local honey when she heard of the Virtual Market – and instantly fell in love with its convenience. “I’m not comfortable on computers, and I had no trouble at all. It’s so easy!”
Her husband, Jim, is President of Recruitment for National Heritage Academies in Dayton, and came home recently, sharing that he stopped by the store for 75 pumpkins the K-2 students would be decorating during a Halloween event at North Dayton School of Discovery in Trotwood. Thankfully for us, that big box store couldn’t fill his need until their shipment from out of state came in a few days later.
Going home with the intention of finding a local supplier, I’m so grateful Martha encouraged him to check whether he could source the pumpkins through the Virtual Market, as she had just read all about Jack DeFord of JM Gardens in our most recent Vendor Feature, and wanted to support “that nice boy” :-)
And you know what? A simple inquiry to the Market Manager, and we seamlessly coordinated the delivery of every pumpkin JM Gardens had left on the Casstown family farm!
As President of the Trotwood Chamber of Commerce, among many other involvements, Jim is a huge supporter of local networking and supporting area businesses. “You’re building a community around a unique start-up business that fills such a necessary niche. I’m glad we were able to support each other, and hope to do so again in the future.”
Now what if more businesses Looked to Local for business luncheons? Appetizers at a meeting? Decorations for the seasons? Maybe you turn to local businesses when you think about it – but do those businesses use local ingredients and local supplies? And when I say local, I mean foods that were actually grown here in our region!! Not simply prepared here, or processed here!!
The networking potential is enormous -
What an impact we could make with our food dollars to truly support OUR producers and help build businesses the community can be proud of. And honest-to-goodness Homegrown products. We have the opportunity to breathe new meaning into the concept of LOCAL – just ask Martha, Jim, and all the kids who enjoyed a wonderful program last night :-)
www.miamicounty.locallygrown.net!