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Teaching elementary students the importance of supporting the 'Backbone' of their city, Oswego NY.
As a senior at SUNY Oswego and an intern at iHeartOswego.com, Marie Hage has spent a decent amount of time within the city limits. Now in her fourth year in Oswego, she realized this 'college town' has so many wonderful local retail shops and restaurants but attention from residents and students was clearly lacking. "In my last and final year at SUNY Oswego, I wanted to do something to give back to the community. If we don't support locally owned and operated business, which is the backbone of the city, it may not be the Oswego we know and love for future generations." Marie said.
As part of iHeartOswego's exciting agenda for the upcoming 2014 year, Marie is launching the first annual `New Year, New Shopping Challenge`. Her mission is to challenge students at Fitzhugh Park Elementary to visit locally owned and operated businesses of Oswego during the months of January and February 2014 and find everyday items they might not have known were available. Marie's goal is to show students that shopping local can be incorporated into an everyday lifestyle; it does not have to be for a 'once in a while' purchase.
How it Works: The challenge is set up as a scavenger hunt. Each student has been asked to choose 3 out of 5 items from a provided list and find them at locally owned and operated businesses in town. There will be a list of stores for them to choose from. The winning entries will be eligible for prizes and the class with the most participation will win a pizza party courtesy of Pizza Villa and iHeartOswego.com.
Student are not required to make any purchases at the stores, just take a picture of the item they found with the store name. It's a fun activity that can be done with parents and guardians. The Challenge is solely operating to promote local store awareness!
For more information about this community project, please contact Marie at hage@oswego.edu or contact Victoria Gailinas at iHeartOswego; (315) 402-6623.
