For the second annual Snowflake Celebration this year, the Buy in
Brooklyn team is going all out!
The "shop local-shop late" event– which falls
on the first two Thursdays of December (December 4th and
11th), will include over 120 businesses in the Park
Slope neighborhood and is growing at a clip.
Indeed, the stock market may well be playing an amplified role for organizers this year.
From nearly every corner of the economic landscape, the forecast is bleak—giving
this year’s call to shop locally added impact. "The Snowflake festival is more
important this year than ever," said John Ciferni, owner of Tarzian
True Value Hardware and President of the Park Slope Chamber of Commerce. "In
these hard economic times supporting our local businesses is one of the most
important things we can do to keep our local economy and community strong," he
said.
The cool fiscal winds may be giving Buy in Brooklyn’s educational
mission a boost too. "We are excited to be partnering with a number of
nonprofit and local groups this year to broaden the educational mission of
Buy in Brooklyn," said Rebeccah Welch, who is running communications for
the campaign and working with some of its partner organizations. From the
Sustainable Business Network NYC (SBNYC) and Local Labels to the
Brooklyn Green Team and Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development
Corporation (SBIDC), the breadth of participants speaks to the range– and
the imperative– of a thriving local economy.
"We hope to leverage greater support by
getting out the word on how many excellent organizations are out there working
hard on this issue," said Welch of the campaign.
The Buy in Brooklyn team
is particularly excited about their work with the Borough President’s Office,
whose Shop Brooklyn launch they whole-heartedly support. "We see
this borough-wide initiative not only as a measure of our early success, but as
a sign that a broader understanding has taken hold," added Welch, "one where
people see how the health of small businesses has a direct impact on the health
of local communities."
About Buy in Brooklyn: Buy in Brooklyn is an original
initiative of the Park Slope Civic Council and Park Slope Chamber of Commerce
and was founded in 2007 to bring merchant and community groups together to
tackle local economic issues in greater collaboration. The "Snowflake
Celebration" is a shop local-shop late campaign of Buy in Brooklyn
organized by the Park Slope Chamber of Commerce in close partnership with a
number of organizations including the 5th Avenue BID and the Sustainable
Business Network NYC.