Organizing a Buy Local Month in your community is a great way to bring attention to the benefits of buying local rather than buying from big box stores. Click here for ideas about how to organize a Buy Local Month. They range from something very small scale, like getting your friends to hand out “buy local” flyers outside chain stores in December, to something larger scale like getting your city government to declare a particular month the official “buy local month” in your city. You can also promote buying local by organizing a screening of “Independent America” or “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price; or inviting a speaker like Stacy Mitchell, the author of Big Box Swindle to do a speaking event; or getting local businesses to display “buy local” signs in their windows. Click here to check out BALLE’s comprehensive how-to guide to organizing a buy local first campaign in your community.