Chamber’s “Think Local” Campaign Stimulates Local Economy
by Jamie Hardy
The Independent, July 16, 2009

 
Sept. 12, 1979, Hurricane Frederick placed its mark on Baldwin County. I was right at 5 years old at the time, but was able to learn some of life’s valuable lessons. I saw communities pulling together, I saw kids helping parents, and I saw neighbors helping neighbors. Ultimately, weeks after the storm roared on shore my father stopped by to see my sister and me one afternoon and we did not recognize him until my mother hugged him. You see, he had been gone for weeks away from home and had grown a full beard while restoring this community’s power working for Baldwin EMC. That memory has been etched in my mind for years along with the values he instilled in me that day, the value of hard work and the value of caring for others above yourself.

Today the catastrophe we deal with in Baldwin County and nationwide is one that very few of our generation have dealt with; an economy that is not stable. Hopefully from this we can learn another value of life, the value of money. Sure we all get taught at an early age in grade school the value of money, but I mean the real value or another way to put it the dependency on money. We all live by the value of the dollar, not because we are greedy or rich, but because we depend on it for necessities.

This is where the Central Baldwin Chamber and I personally would like to educate you on that value. Have you ever thought about where you spend your money? I do not mean by reviewing a budget or some systematic way of dividing your purchases into categories. I truly mean where you spend your money, as in the location you spend it. If you reading this newspaper article, I am assuming that you live in or around the Central Baldwin area and enjoy the area and people you live around. Do you then spend your money in this area and with those people you value the most?

The Central Baldwin Chamber in conjunction with the support of our local businesses is launching a campaign titled “Think Local.” You will be seeing more details of the campaign over time, but the premise is that you can make a difference locally by taking a minute to think where you spend your money. We all purchase items/services/etc. on an almost daily basis, but when is the last time you thought:

• Do I use a local bank for my banking needs?
• Do I purchase groceries locally?
• Do I support my next-door neighbor who owns a gas station?
• Did I purchase my last bedroom suit from someone I do not
   know in another city?
• Do I eat at local restaurants?

The list goes on and on and you can see it is not hard questions, but rather easy questions that we tend to think do not make a difference. Why is that? I think it comes from having a stable economy for the majority of our life. We have not had to review our spending in recent years because the majority of small businesses have been doing “okay.” Well, I can assure you that we are no longer in that era. We have many small business owners in our local communities that are hurting and loosing their livelihoods every day. With that said, I encourage you from the time you put this newspaper article down to start to “Think Local.“ Your neighbor and mine are depending on it! We look forward to sharing more with you over the next several months regarding how you can continue to “Think Local.”

James H. “Jamie” Hardy Jr., CPA, is a partner with Neuschwander, Faircloth & Hardy P.C. in Robertsdale. He is 2009 Chairman of the Central Baldwin Chamber of Commerce.