Whaddaya say we push back against the recession a little bit this month.
How, you ask?
By spending "$20 on the 20th," that's how.
Everybody knows we're in a recession. How could they not? We've published story after story about it.
Chrysler and General Motors are in bankruptcy. Who would have dreamed that was a possibility a year ago?The unemployment rate is rising and people are spending less.
But right here in Kosciusko County, I think we can actually add a little boost to the local economy.
We're asking everybody to go out and spend $20 on June 20 at a local retailer.
Now this isn't a new or unique idea, but I think it's a good one, nonetheless. One of our local advertisers, Tom Skaggs at Blossers Camera and Portrait Studio, mentioned the idea to our advertising representative Paul Smith.
Skaggs saw it online after a newspaper in South Carolina teamed up with their local advertisers and readers to conduct a spend $20 on the 20th promotion.
Spending just $20 can have an impact on the local economy. That's why we're promoting this local stimulus plan. We're encouraging local consumers to spend $20 at one of our local businesses on June 20.
It's really pretty simple. Just go have lunch, or have your oil changed, or buy that gift you've been meaning to buy. Or just go out and buy yourself something.
I think it would be great to walk in stores in Kosciusko County on June 20 and see lots of people walking around waving $20 bills and looking for something to buy.
For our part, the Times-Union is offering a special $20 bargain ad rate for any advertiser who wants to take part in this local stimulus event.
All the ads will be published June 18. The ads will feature the business' logo and whatever special the advertiser wants to offer.
We'll also be promoting "Spend $20 on the 20th" throughout the month leading up to the stimulus on the 20th.
The Times-Union always has been on the front line with regard to publicizing fundraising events for local charities and United Way Agencies. Newspaper space is a valuable commodity, and we believe those agencies are valuable to the community.
They improve the community. The more the community improves, the more viable it becomes and the more newspaper readers and advertisers there will be.
So when it comes time for these agencies to hold an event, we gladly donate the space needed to publicize it. We see it as an investment in the community.
What we're doing here is turning the tables a bit.
The question remains as to whether a local newspaper can actually prod readers into opening their wallets and filling the cash registers of local merchants.
Who knows?
But hey, we figure it's worth a shot.
If the community does respond, we see it a positive for all concerned.
*****
May was National Bicycling Month, regular readers of this column may recall.
In recognition of that, local bicycle addict Alan Alderfer shamed me into riding to work during May. Now, you may remember, every day we didn't ride (except on Wednesdays and rainy days) we had to pony up a $5 charitable contribution.
Here's the rundown:
There were 17 days in May when it would have been possible for me to ride to work. Of those, I managed to ride 10 times. At 31.5 miles round trip, I logged around 315 miles.
Of the seven days I missed, three were because of rain - no penalty - and four were because of, well, either laziness or obligations that required a car.
So I owe a charity $20 for the four missed days.
I didn't keep track, but Alderfer's record was similar to mine. He would ride to the north side of Chapman Lake to accompany me on the last half of my ride into Warsaw from Dewart Lake.
So he probably owed in the neighborhood of $20, too. But since it's for a good cause, we decided we would just go ahead and donate a hundred bucks each.
But to which worthwhile cause? Well, since this was about cycling, we thought about health and kids.
Kids won.
We'll be getting ahold of Tracy Furnivall at Baker Youth Clubs here shortly.
One upside of all this cycling is that it kind of got me back into the sport. We're planning on trying to do a morning ride a couple of times a week from now on.
Another upside is that I suffered no debilitating injuries.
A downside is that even though I'm carrying around an extra 20 pounds or so, I didn't lose an ounce of weight.
There's a simple formula for losing weight - decrease caloric intake and increase physical activity. Hmm, I wonder which half of the equation I got wrong?
