By Yvonne Pflieger
What in early August seemed like an impossible feat turned into an incredible success story. We were overwhelmed by the massive support we received from the community during the fundraising campaign to save the co-op.
It was a crazy time. Trying to raise $50,000 within less than two weeks seemed impossible. But our fundraising committee was committed and consisted of 18 passionate members. Many phone calls were made, but we also engaged with like-minded local organizations, zero waste and permaculture groups on Facebook and Instagram, bloggers, local businesses, colleagues, friends and many more. The support was fantastic and we achieved our goal 1 day early and ended up with a total of $52,605 and 286 individual supporters!
A massive thank you to all our supporters! It is thanks to you all that the co-op can keep its doors open.
Now it was time to celebrate and Friday, September 22 was the night to show our gratitude to our supporters.
We had beautiful live music played by one of our members, Samir John Touma who provided the perfect background to the lively conversations and late night shopping. The shop was packed all night, it was hard to get through the crowds.
We had a special 20% discount for our donors and guests could tuck into dips (generously donated by Arlingtons), bread and crackers from Thorough Bread and taste yummy wild kombucha, courtesy of Ballsy.
Our donors made the most of the night by doing their weekly shop, discovering new products, chatting to each other, staff and members of the board. It was a lovely vibe and there were cheers when Tyler Laitinen, our new chairman, said a few words to thank everyone.
We hope we will be able to repeat evenings like these, bringing together the community and encouraging conversations and connections amongst our members. It made us feel warm and fuzzy. 🙂
A big thank you to Katja and Sage, and volunteer Jenna who volunteered their time to make this evening a success. Samir, thank you for the lovely music!
As successful has the fundraising campaign has been, the co-op is not out of the woods yet. The board is working on a strategy to set the co-op up for success for many more years to come (stay tuned for updates), but it is you, our members, who have the biggest influence:
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Make the co-op your number 1 destination for your weekly shop,
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Volunteer your time if you can and
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Spread the word.