| Newsletter Dec. 2010 Serving Bloomington and Monroe County |
Happy Holidays!
Thanks to all of you who have been picking up our Think Local First Holiday Guides around town. We have gone back to the printer twice already to replenish the original 500 that we printed out. We look forward to talking with business owners after the Holiday season to see how sales went for them this year. If you still need to grab one, see our list below for locations.
As many of you already know, when you spend your dollars locally 2-4 times that amount stays in the community than when you spend that money in a non-local business. This money re-circulates every time the local businesses turn around and spend their money locally. Spend your money here and you will see a higher quality of life for you and all of your neighbors. Happy Holidays, looking forward to seeing all the locals out and about over the break.
--Una Winterman, Founder, Local First Indiana |
Local First Indiana Sustaining Member
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Web Guides to Help You Stay Local While You Travel
Some of you will be out traveling for the Holiday Season and may want a good way to find independent businesses on the road. There are several sites you can look to.
BALLE BALLE represents over 22,000 locally based, independent businesses across the country. Their list of networks can help you zero in on your destination, and most of these networks have searchable directories to help you find anything from a hotel to a great restaurant to local shops where you can finish off your holiday shopping.
Neither of these have much representation in Bloomington, but you might find more luck with some places you are traveling to:
Indiebound The mission of the IndieBound Community is to help people across the United States share and find independently-owned businesses. By connecting indie-conscious people with local businesses, we're working to strengthen the health of Main Street ecosystems across the United States. Learn more about the community's philosophy here.
Locallectual The idea behind Locallectual is to offer a personalized shopping experience based on your preferences. Shop for what you want, made where you want. You can shop by category, country of origin, state of origin, or search for goods made within a designated mile radius of your zip code! This saves you, as a consumer, precious time while leaving you with the peace of mind of knowing exactly where your purchase was produced. This site also gives you information about the manner in which various products are made and by whom. |
Local First Indiana Sustaining Member
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 Check out the Think Local First Gift Guide! 
Our guides are still in stores, so it isn't too late!
Local First Indiana's Think Local First Holiday Guide is filled with ideas for your Holiday shopping list--and they are all from local, independent businesses in Bloomington. Bursting with 32 pages of ideas for a variety of budgets and recipients, the guide also includes a list of events happening in Local First Indiana member businesses on Black Friday and throughout the Holiday Season.
Look for the Think Local First Holiday Guide in these businesses!
- Barefoot Kids, 615 W. Kirkwood
- BCT Box Office, 114 E. Kirkwood
- The Bishop, corner of 4th and Walnut
- Bloomingfoods (all 3 locations: Westside, 316 W. 6th, Eastside, 3220 E. 3rd Downtown, 419 E Kirkwood Ave.
- Boxcar Books, 408 E. 6th
- By Hand Gallery, inside Fountain Square Mall, 101 W. Kirkwood, Suite #109
- City Hall (Shower's Building, Main Desk near front entry, 401 N. Morton)
- The Comedy Attic, corner of 4th and Walnut
- The Crazy Horse, 214 W. Kirkwood
- Friends of Art Bookshop, 1201 E. 7th, Fine Arts Building, IU Campus
- Landlocked Music, 202 N. Walnut
- Melody Music Shop, 402 W 6th
- Nick's English Pub, 423 E. Kirkwood Ave.
- Oliver Winery, 8024 N. State Road 37
- Paper Crane Gallery and Studio, 401 W. 6th, Suite J (door is on South side of building in the Photo Solutions building
- Revolution Bike and Bean, 401 E. 10th
- Sahara Mart, 106 E. 2nd
- Sole Sensations, 414 S. College
- Soma, 322 E. Kirkwood
- Upland, 350 W. 11th
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 | | Local First Indiana Sustaining Member |
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 Landlocked Gift Card Upgrade Program is Back!!
It's Back: Landlocked's Excellent Giftcard Upgrade Program! (aka LEG-UP) This holiday season, if you receive some gift cards that you don't want, stop by Landlocked & they'll take em & turn em into something you want to use - A Landlocked Gift Certificate! Just bring in your unwanted giftcards to the counter before you start shopping & they'll have a Landlocked gift certificate, or store credit, waiting for you when you check out that is equal to the amount ya traded in. And, let's face it, Best Buy's selection of Os Mutantes, Zero Boys, Sun Ra and Sonic Youth has dwindled lately - but theirs hasn't!
* LEG-UP * yes, of course there's a catch or 2... (1) The card must be from a chain competitor (Best Buy, Amazon, etc). Not Borders- they are out of biz! They don't take trade on local stores' gift cards (Soma, Boxcar, Upland, etc) becuase they want you to support them too! They also don't take iTunes cards. Eww. But they'll take a card from Staples! (2) The card's value must be verifiable via phone, meaning they can only accept the card if it has a 1-800 number - usually on the back. (3) The gift card must not expire for at least 6 months from the date of exchange. |
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The Center for Sustainable Living is in need of Donations
As 2010 draws to a close, we want to thank you for your support this past year and invite you to continue your support in 2011.
In the meantime, it's year-end tax-deductible donation season. We invite you to consider donating to Local First Indiana and/or our parent organization, the Center for Sustainable Living, which needs ongoing financial support to maintain its office in the Eco-Center. LFI benefits greatly from the tax-exempt and tax-deductible status we derive as a project of the CSL, so it is in our interest to keep the CSL healthy. To do so, send a check made out to the Center for Sustainable Living to:
Center for Sustainable Living
323 South Walnut St.
Bloomington, IN 47401
If you would like to donate to Local First Indiana and also help the CSL, as LFI contributes 5% of all funds raised to the CSL. To do so, send a check made out to Local First Indiana and send here:
Local First Indiana
1100 S. Rogers St.
Bloomington, IN 47403
For more information about the CSL, visit their website.
This lovely video about the Center for Sustainable Living and their projects was recently made for CSL by Thomas Frick, Angela Sorury, and John Elliot in their T-351 class at IU, Advanced Field Production with professor Ron Osgood. |
 | | Art by Sadly Harmless www.sadlyharmless.etsy.com |
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Become a member of Local First Indiana today!
Bloomington residents want to shop local and we aim to make that easier.
Benefits
- Window decal (identifies your business as local and independent)
- Marketing campaigns, such as poster campaigns, press releases, coupon promotions, interviews with local media.
- Listing in our online directory
- Twitter and Facebook postings about specials or special events happening in your business. We have over 700 followers on Facebook who will instantly see the postings.
- Access to network of over 22,000 local, independent businesses throughout the U.S. through our affiliation with BALLE.
- Newsletter
Prices
$10 a year per employee,
min. $35, max. $350.
Part-time employees count as half.
Sustaining Members
$500, $1,000, or $2,000
Sustaining Member Benefits: Promotion at Local First Events, on our website, and in our monthly newsletter. Size of logo or business name will correspond to size of contribution.
For more information about becoming a member, please visit our website here.
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Local First Indiana Sustaining Members
click on the logos below to link to the webpages
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The Center for Sustainable Living is the Fiscal Sponsor for Local First Indiana
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New Local First Indiana Members!
click on the logos below to link to the web pages
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Bloomington Area Birth Services
At BABS, you can enroll in a range of childbirth classes, prenatal and postpartum yoga, breastfeeding support, postpartum and other support groups or drop in on parent-baby playtime. You will also find information about local doulas, the lending library, and the BABS Boutique retail store.
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3910 S. Walnut
Discount Verticals and Blinds
offering a full array of window treatments. Mini blinds, wood blinds, shades, shutters, window toppers, drapery and more! If you've got a window, we'll help you cover it!!
Free Estimates!
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401 W. 6th (door is on south side of building, facing the parking lot)
Paper Crane Gallery and Studio
An emerging artist's gallery and resource
We provide a space for artists and those interested in the arts to learn, grow, work on projects and help themselves become better able to present themselves as artists.
Come on in and check out our store!
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Local First Indiana Steering Committee
Una Winterman, Founder
David Baas, Roadworthy Guitar and Amp
Dan Coleman, Spirit of '68 Promotions Rick Dietz, Stranger's Hill Farm
Jessika Hane, Oliver Winery
Darcy Harvey, Bloomingfoods
George Huntington, Stranger's Hill Farm, Bloomingfoods Nate Jackson, Move University David Rollo, Stranger's Hill Farm, Bloomington City Coucil
Jaime Sweany, Wandering Turtle Art Gallery and Gifts
Martin Sorge, volunteer
Brian Winterman, Indiana University Libraries
Sheryl Woodhouse-Keese, Twisted Limb Paperworks
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