The program will be promoted to our previous thousands of contestants who entered to win our two “$1,000 Shopping Sprees” (one in the Fall of 2008 and one in 2009) and last summer’s “Discover East County Packages”.

It will also be promoted locally by all Coalition Members of Try Local First with information regarding the contest being promoted in local newspaper and on the Try Local First contest page as well as the Gresham Area Chamber of Commerce website and other Coalition members websites.

The promotion will begin in mid June and entries will be accepted for 30 days. Winners will be selected based on the previously selected guidelines and presented at the Center for the Arts Plaza “Street Dance” event the last weekend of July.

Those businesses that contribute prizes to the “East County Stimulus Package” will be listed on the Try Local First website and those that contribute prizes with a retail value of $100 or more will receive a link to their website, if requested. They will also be mentioned in as many promotional materials and presentations as possible.

The goal of the contest is to promote East County businesses as well as local events that contribute to the economic well being of our community.

The Home Show will be held June 11 and 12, 2010 at the Holiday Inn, 2725 NE Hogan Drive in Gresham. The event runs Friday, June 11 from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm and Saturday, June 11 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Admission is $3.00 per adult or $2.00 with a donation to My Father’s House Community Shelter , and $2.00 per child age 6-12 or $1.00 with a donation to My Father’s House. Children 6 and under are free.

For more information, please contact i4 Marketing at 971.235.3120.

Just show your key tag to the business sponsors listed on the web-site start saving money today and support your local businesses at the same time.

We feel the positive energy of people shopping local and taking care of those less fortunate in our community. The Try Local First slogan You Have the Power is truer now than ever.

During this holiday season consider the power you have to make a difference in our community. Local business are far more likely to help our schools, our sports teams, our soup kitchens, our homeless shelters than a business located online or out of state.

If local businesses are successful, a portion of their tax dollars come directly back to our community. So embrace your power and make this shopping season one of blessings for all in in our community.

The walk will begin at 1:30 p.m. with a group discussion at Café Delirium, a local independent coffee shop in Gresham’s historic downtown. He will meet with members of Gresham’s Try Local First campaign to discuss the importance of making local purchasing decisions to help the local economy.

At approximately 2:15 p.m., Bemis and representatives from Try Local First will visit five local merchants to discuss how their businesses are doing and to talk about how the City might be of assistance to them.

In these difficult market conditions, Bemis hopes to draw attention to the importance of thinking locally when making purchasing decisions, and continue his efforts to promote business friendly policies at City Hall.

Mayor Bemis holds Neighborhood Walks quarterly, and uses them as opportunities to connect and learn about issues going on in Gresham. City Councilor Carol Nielsen-Hood, who is also the Executive Director of the Gresham Chamber of Commerce, will join Bemis for the visits.

Walk Itinerary (times are approximate):

1:30 p.m.
Café Delirium
308 N Main, Gresham, OR 97030
Meet with representatives from Gresham Try Local First Campaign and business owner Cody Clark.

2:15 p.m.
Cynthia’s Floral
312 N Main, Gresham, OR 97030
Meet with store owner, Cynthia Loaffler.

3:00 p.m.
Elegantly Funky
101 N Main, Gresham, OR 97030
Meet with store owner, Kerry Parmenter.

3:45 p.m.
Dick’s Sporting Goods (Gresham Town Fair)
700 NW Eastman Parkway, Gresham, OR 97030
Meet with General Manager Rich Rhames.

4:30 p.m.
Borders (http://www.greshamstation.com)
687 NW 12Street, Gresham, OR 97030
Meet with General Manager Julie Nelson.

What’s so important about this idea of using local merchants, suppliers and contractors? What difference does it really make whether you buy your new (fill in the blank) from an East County merchant, a Portland department store or online for that matter?

Is there any way to measure the impact of an individual decision to acquire goods or services locally? The answer is emphatically yes.

One local business made a commitment to hire a local design team and a local general contractor to expand its Gresham senior housing community. The direct economic impact within the community has been phenomenal. Ask the Gresham-based general contractor, PDG Construction Services, or any one of roughly 20 local material suppliers, vendors and specialty contractors who are benefiting from this owner’s decision and commitment.

Or, ask any one of the 260 construction workers, many of them living in East County, who will be employed during the 15-month expansion. Ask Axis Design and Engineering, the local design firm that spent a year in planning, designing and permitting the project.

Mary Beisley, administrator for Courtyard Fountains, explained her company’s philosophy behind the decision to hire local professionals to design and construct its Phase III mixed occupancy facility.

The project contains 44 assisted living units, 15 luxury independent senior apartments, a secured parking garage, commercial kitchen and dining facility, offices and common areas for residents.

The structure is 77,300 square feet and the cost of construction is approximately $11 million.

The owner and Beisley were adamant about using local companies because they knew local firms would take a greater personal interest in the quality of design, execution and final quality of the facility. Gresham is a relatively small community, so local contractors and trades people are committed to performing at the highest level.

Being involved in Courtyard Fountains is a great opportunity for many local firms and each of them want to have a successful outcome to promote their businesses. Further, this local business-to-business commitment has created strong ambassadors among the contractor’s team for the Courtyard Fountains’ future occupancy. It’s a win-win in every direction.

From a practical standpoint, most observers would understand and agree with this assessment. However, is there a real metric that can be looked at to measure the economic impact to the local economy, when a “buy local first” commitment is made?

The Center for Strategic Economic Research is a Sacramento-based consortium that has done specific research into this question. These researchers analyzed the economic impact on a regional economy from various types of construction projects. Courtyard Fountains neatly fits into a health care and institutional building category. The findings are revealing.

Every $1 million of construction supports 11.7 total jobs; 6.8 direct jobs plus another 4.9 jobs through indirect and induced activities. Also, each $1 million of construction cost creates an additional $770,300 of additional economic output through indirect and induced activities.

Direct impacts are the initial, immediate economic activities (jobs and income) generated by the project that correspond with the first round of spending in the economy. Indirect impacts are the production, employment and income changes occurring in other businesses in the community that supply inputs to the project and/or industry.

Induced impacts are the effects of spending by the households in the local economy as a result of new jobs created by the facility.

Beisley — the Courtyard Fountains administrator — estimates that the new staff positions required for operation will create 50 new jobs.

According to this sophisticated economic analysis model, Courtyard Fountains’ commitment to “buy local first” will have an overall economic input to the East County regional economy of almost $20 million.

That really matters, especially in light of the current economic conditions.

It makes a difference every time anyone makes the commitment to buy from local merchants, suppliers, contractors and service providers.

And, the talent and resources are locally available to accomplish almost anything. Ask your local chamber of commerce or check its Web sites for help in finding resources.

Brian Lessler is president of PDG Construction Services in Gresham and also is 2009 president for the East Metro Economic Alliance.

The “Try Local First” theme of the 10th annual East County Economic Summit manifested itself in more ways than one.

In addition to holding the event — sponsored this year by the Boeing Company — at East Hill Church in the heart of downtown Gresham, a voucher system allowed participants to get a taste, literally, of what the area is all about.

For lunch, the approximately 150 participants of this year’s event were given $10 vouchers they could redeem at their choice of several downtown restaurants. This marked a shift away from the banquet-lunch format of previous years, when the event was held at Persimmon Country Club.

Carol Nielsen-Hood, executive director of the Gresham Area Chamber of Commerce, says she’s pleased with the changes that refocused the summit on the local business community.

“Our emphasis was try local first,” she says, “and we did that by having local people as speakers and emphasizing the importance of using (locally based) merchants and businesses.

“The other part was having lunch vouchers for downtown restaurants, and about 80 percent of the people who attended took advantage of that.”

Based on a preliminary review of participant surveys, she says, those who attended liked the altered format that highlighted individual workshop sessions in addition to key presentations by Mike Hallgrimson and Don Hendrickson of the Boeing Company.

Most presentations were from local merchants and officials, including Gresham Mayor Shane T. Bemis and Janet Young, the city’s economic development services director, who presented an overview of the city’s strategic vision for job growth. Other speakers included Bess Wills of Gresham Ford and Jim Riegelmann of the long-running downtown business Riegelmann’s Appliances. Heidi Olson of Olson & Associates and Leah McMahon, founder of Silk Espresso, discussed developments in social networking opportunities — including online sites such as Facebook and MySpace — that can assist business communications and community building.

Sandi Stretch of Univision, a Spanish-speaking media company, delivered a presentation on “Multicultural Marketing,” Jon Nicolazzo of American Funds spoke on “The Economic Crisis and the Recovery Ahead,” and Robert Brown of WorkSource Oregon and Antonio Paez of the Small Business Development Center discussed ways to apply community resources to enhance local businesses.

Nielsen-Hood says she was particularly impressed with the “breakout session” format that inspired lively and informative post-presentation question-and-answer sessions.

“People had options,” she says. “It was a very diverse community. Participants could go to any session that suited where they are today in business. I think we had well-rounded breakout sessions.”

Travis Stovall, whose The Stovall Group has sponsored the summit before, says he liked the changes in this year’s event.

“I thought the switch to East Hill was an excellent switch,” he says. “It got into the heart of downtown and showed people some nice things about downtown Gresham.”

Despite the successes, Nielsen-Hood says it’s too early to say whether the downtown location and lunch voucher concepts will be repeated for the 11th summit in 2010. The idea, she stresses, is to remain open and reflect what’s going on in the larger as well as smaller economic and business worlds.

“I would hope” we’d keep it downtown, she says. “Every year we try to go in a different direction. We try to address the economy and be with the times.”