That is beside the point though Not Sure. It is a good article. I am...Rebecca Joers, the owner of Jolie Boutique at 937 Curtiss St., made good use of the internet this holiday season to promote her shop’s lovely and unusual offerings in a series of highly successful “13 days of Christmas” e-mails.
Yesterday, she followed up with an electronic thank-you note that made an excellent case for shopping locally — at Christmas and throughout the year.
Entitled “Thank You for Buying Local,” the e-mail offered five reasons it pays to spend our discretionary dollars at home:
1. You kept your dollars in the community…for every $100 you spend at an independent shop statistics show that $68 will stay in that community. Only $43 stays in the community when you buy at a chain.
2. You created local jobs…we have a staff of eight FABULOUS local girls who use their paychecks in our community.
3. You nurtured the community…we support local entities, like the $5000 the Downtown Downers Grove shops raised for our elementary schools in one fabulous evening last fall.
4. You invested in the community…when you spend locally instead of online you ensure that your tax dollars are invested where they belong, right here in our community.
5. You kept local property taxes down…the tax revenue generated by businesses offsets the property tax costs to run our village.
As someone who found beautiful gifts for my teen-aged daughter and nieces (plus a trio of hand-crafted felt Christmas tree ornaments and a little something for myself) at Joer’s shop, it’s nice to be thanked.
And even nicer to feel like you’re helping the local economy and an independent merchant by keeping your discretionary dollars at home.
I guess it will be needed more than ever too, since without community events like the big bike race or Heritage Fest, Downers Grove businesses will be more “out of sight, out of mind” to nonresidents and sales tax revenue will in turn shrink.
There are some nice businesses downtown, and I hope they can survive for a long time.
This is absolutely spot on. One of the best ways we could help our community is to shop locally. Mayor Sandack has been very public about this and I saw a great piece on the Mayor of Belleville, Illinois that sent out letters to the residents that basically said, “if you want to keep services and lower taxes you need to shop locally and here’s why.” This doesn’t only mean downtown DG. there are also businesses scattered throughout our vast suburb.
As much as I dread making an extra trip to Ballydoyle and drinking a beer or two (and maybe eating something) while listening to live music, I guess I’ll make that sacrifice if it’s for the good of the community.
HS,
Way to take one for the team! Happy new years all!!
I’ve been championing the cause of shopping locally for the past year because I believe strongly in the value it brings to our community in more ways than one. Among our more successful Christmas gifts this year (along with the great items from Jolie and several purchases from Anderson’s) is a “Life is Good” hat my daughter bought for her brother at Style Studio. So far, she’s worn it more than he has, which is a testament to how “cool” it is.
Our local restaurants and shops are terrific. May I suggest a New Year’s resolution to do special-occasion shopping there, at the very least?
and don’t forget movies at our own Tivoli! and bowling at the Tivoli bowl!
And speaking of the Tivoli theater – when you attend the Bacon Brothers’ concert there on March 27, 2010, you will enjoy an amazing evening of musical entertainment; you will be helping a LOCAL organization – Education Foundation of Downers Grove District 58; contributing to the local economy (concessions stand will be open as well as beverages sold) AND you can go to a LOCAL restaurant for dinner (Capri, Emmett’s, Gatto’s, Another Round and Rocca’s under their new name Toscany’s) and save 20% off your food bill that evening!! talk about win, win, win, win!!!
and one more LOCAL place you can help with the economy! TOBIAS Music is raffling off a TAYLOR Guitar in conjunction with the Bacon Brothers’ Concert – all proceeds will go to the Education Foundation – but shop Tobias or take lessons there to also help the locals!
Just for a point of clarification here, for those of you who may or may think District 58 is “flush with money” the Education Foundation does NOT provide funds for salaries or maintenance, etc. Our funds go directly to the KIDS to the classrooms, to programs for the kids, field trips for the KIDS, etc… so when you donate to the Foundation or support our fundraisers this is all about the kids and enhancing their educational and classroom environment and making it better!!!
Thanks for the info – what an incredible raffle prize…think I’ll go get some new strings this week!
HS I should have said selling raffle tickets – I am sorry for the omission. Not sure of the pricing yet, but I think they are $25 each or X for $100… but it will be a beautiful electric Taylor guitar!
Didn’t the Education Foundation also donate about $15,000.00 to the referendum?
I know we donated, Liz, and am checking into the amount. All of the local PTA’s also donated. 501(c)(3)’s are allowed to do this, and all of the by-laws were reviewed before any funds were donated.
I know in the case of PTA’s, since I was a former Council President I did get a few calls asking if it was ok and how much, etc.
I thought the Foundation’s donation was 10K, but again, I am checking into it – considering we have raised over $400,000 that has gone right into the classrooms and kids’ programs that is a very small percentage – if that’s what you are “getting at” (not saying whether you are or are not)
@Debbie
Great job, Debbie! Could you elaborate on the kids programs? Although the organization raised that much and funded many programs at schools, I did not see any extra programs at my kids school year around.
I’ll pipe in here on that one, Transplant, because the question came up at our elementary school, too. I believe the foundation funds grants for which teachers and/or schools must apply. So if no one at your school applied for a grant, there wouldn’t be any direct benefit to your school.
Did I get that right, Debbie? Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Transplant, dg58ef.com provides great information on more of what the Foundation does and how…
In general, much of what we fund comes from grant requests (there is a specific application process for this which is reviewed by a committee, etc.); programs we sponsor; individual requests from the District or schools; and each year at the beginning of the year, each school is given $500.00 to use as they wish.
Each building principal is then asked to provide a synopsis of what their building utilized the funds for back to the Foundation, where it is typically published in the both a local newspaper and in the District’s newsletter.
We also fund a few programs which we “run” and sponsor – Select 58, Distinguished Service Award to name a few. We also provided college scholarships for District 58 alumnae, however that was a specific fund donated for that purpose by an individual and those funds are no longer available.. they were given away until they were dissipated.
Also, we have funded Little Sprouts in conjunction with the School District – an outdoor education program for primary students.
Any staff member or PTA can apply for grants -many do not and many do…
If anyone has any further questions about the Education Foundation, I would invite you to email me and I would be happy to answer your questions. ptamomdd@sbcglobal.net
Also, I do know some parents have said “why don’t you do something for 3rd graders, or such and such a grade” as I indicated much of what we fund is not necessarily “sponsored” or “created” by the Foundation, but rather, funded by the organization. I hope this helps… (I am sorry, Elaine, to be off thread here… it started with shopping locally, honest!
Elaine and Debbie thank you for the information.
We published a story on the Community Relations page of the District 58 Web site regarding the nearly $20,000 in grants the Foundation is providing to our classrooms and schools in 2009-10. The story gives a brief description of each project or program being funded, and lists the applicants and their school(s).
This story can be viewed here: http://www.dg58.org/community_relations/pdf10/edgrants09_10.pdf
The applicants also presented information about their projects and programs during the December 14 School Board meeting; the audio is available at http://www.dg58.org.
Thank you, Ms. Waldorf, for the links.
Great post! We do have some great businesses right here in town and we should support them whenever possible. In addition to the community benefit, you will find that the customer service in our downtown businesses cannot be beat. These people are very invested in their stores and go above and beyond to hear what their customers want and meet those needs. And for the budget-conscious, our sales tax rate remains lower than many of the surrounding communities!
I know I am a little late to the game here, but some other great shops (and I love Jolie Boutique) are Consider It Done (I have never seen a more cordial shop owner) and Baubles and More (great costume jewelry at a reasonable price)on Main. I can’t go downtown without stopping in Louisa and Millie’s Chocolates.