Choose Local First logo
A three-way partnership established to help drive a “Choose Local First” campaign in the cities of Centralia and Chehalis continues to gain momentum.
The mission of the campaign is to strengthen the social and economic framework of the two cities by supporting, publicizing and encouraging the area’s locally-owned businesses while raising awareness about the importance of choosing local.
The partnership includes the Centralia Downtown Association, the Chehalis Community Renaissance Team and the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce.
The campaign is the only time in recent history that CDA and CCRT have combined their efforts for a common cause: to spotlight local businesses in the area.
CDA President Steve Koreis-MacLeod said the organizations, along with the Chamber of Commerce, came together to help collaborate on ways to increase the vitality of the economy in the two cities. Although the organizations have not worked together in approximately 30 years, he said community leaders decided it was time.
“We decided the best thing to do is just do it and start working together to show our community this is beneficial,” he said. “We don’t have to lose our identities as individual communities, but we have so much to offer to each other.”
The campaign focused on choose local first, instead of shop local, because of the plethora of services offered throughout the area.
“We are choose local first for a reason,” Annalee Toby, CCRT marketing chairwoman, said. “It’s not just about shopping local, this is about local services: where you do your banking, where you have your car detailed, where you have your hair done. All of those things are choose local first.”
Toby said the partnership seems like a natural fit because residents of the cities travel to the other communities to get services as well. She said the campaign aims to develop and showcase each city's unique character by marketing what the businesses do to be one of a kind.
Businesses will have the opportunity to obtain a logo that they can place in their windows, helping to indicate they are indeed a local business. Toby, however, said that isn’t enough and said CCRT is working closely with businesses to ensure that employees are sharing why it’s important to choose local services.
CDA is simulating the efforts of CCRT, and both organizations will launch a media campaign to spread awareness and highlight the businesses in the area.
“We are working real hard to make sure rather than competing with one another, because we are inexplicably linked economically, that we are mirroring each other’s efforts and sharing ideas as opposed to creating silos,” Koreis-MacLeod said. “When we create silos and keep all our ideas from each other, we end up hurting each other rather than helping ourselves.”
The program is non-proprietary, and every business is encouraged to participate.
“We are doing nothing here except trying to support our businesses,” Toby said. “... If we want our communities to develop we have to have something that other communities don’t, and it is our local businesses and services that make us different from every other community.”
By working to promote the uniqueness of area business, the Choose Local Campaign hopes to increase economic development throughout Centralia and Chehalis.
