Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Buy Local!

I recently received the following email from the Gnu's Room.  I hope everyone will attend their fundraiser on Feb 28th from 11am - 8pm...

The Gnu's Room, like many small businesses, has been struggling to
keep its doors open in the face of difficult economic times. A
business meeting at the end of January yielded a decision to close the
business at the end of February due to the greatly-reduced sales
experienced over the past nine months. As we began to inform our
regular customers of the decision, so many of them expressed their
sadness over the loss of a place they so deeply appreciated.

A small group of loyal customers, grad students from the Biology
Department, approached me about the possibility of their organizing a
benefit to raise funds for keeping the store open. Having resolved
myself to closing the store, the idea was interesting but didn't seem
realistic. I wondered how the public would respond to a fundraiser for
a used bookstore/coffee shop. Undaunted, the students met, recruited
others, planned, organized and are about to orchestrate a major
community-wide effort with the theme, "Spread the Gnu's: Buy Local."

The event will take place at the Gnu's Room on Saturday, February 28th
from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The event will include a silent art
auction (local artists have donated paintings, photos and pottery), a
bake sale (items provided by student volunteers), local
musicians/bands playing for donations, and the Auburn Area Community
Theatre performing as well as professional actor, Doc Waller.

Local authors and poets will read and t-shirts will be sold. The
t-shirts, sponsored by twelve local businesses whose logos will appear
on the back of the shirt, will feature on the front the Gnu's Room
logo with the words "Coffee, Books, Community." The goal of the event
is to not only raise funds to continue operations, but to raise
awareness of the plight of all local businesses needing community
support to stay open.

The Gnu's Room has as its mission the promotion of reading and literacy, and
the support of local arts in all forms through the provision of a
forum for local poets and prose writers, artists, musicians, dancers
and actors. The Gnu's Room wants to foster a warm and accepting
atmosphere -- a place where people share real conversations and in
every sense of the word, experience a feeling of community.

We invite you to join us on the 28th. The proceeds raised will
hopefully enable the store to remain open through the difficult summer
months and beyond.

We are so deeply grateful to the students who have invested so much
time and effort into the planning of this event and who care so much
for our mission. We are also extremely humbled by the support of the
local businesses, artists, musicians, actors and writers who are
donating their time, talents and merchandise to help us. It will be an
exciting day and we hope to see you there!

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