The Holidays Are Coming...Two great ideas

We are always on the lookout for meaningful ways to mark the holiday, and two recent ideas that crossed our desks strike just the right note in the spirit of our times. 

The first suggestion came via Jayni Chase, a Bedford neighbor and founder of CEE (Center for Environmental Education who urges us to kick the habit of buying cheaply made and foreign stuff this year, instead keeping holiday gift dollars within the community with things like gift certificates for services such as haircuts, car-detailing, or house-cleaning, tickets to a local theater or dance production, a gift card to a local, non-chain restaurant, or jewelry and other items by a local craftsperson.  Jayni says,  "Christmas/Hanukkah is now about...encouraging American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow their dreams."

In a similar red, white, and blue vein, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz, no longer content to wait for our government, has teamed up with a group of community lending institutions to provide financing to small businesses that need support in order to grow and hire.  With $5 million in seed money from Starbucks and the proceeds from donations and sales of a $5 "Indivisible" bracelet available online and at Starbucks everywhere,  Create Jobs for USA will make loans to help create jobs in underserved communities throughout the US. 

We like the way Jayni and Howard are thinking!