Westlock is a great community and the proof is in the pudding as we continue to celebrate the town’s 100th year in existence.
We’re blessed with wonderful facilities like the Rotary Spirit Centre and Westlock Healthcare Centre, fantastic schools and a volunteer base second to none in the province.
But you don’t reach the century mark for those reasons alone — many communities have come and gone over the last 100 years.
Ultimately you need a strong local economy and in the case of Westlock, that means a healthy, vibrant small-business community.
Far too often people take for granted the charitable contributions of our small business owners.
We are not one of them.
We’re fortunate to see all the thank-you ads — and are even included on a few ourselves — for events ranging from the fair, to car shows, school events and projects and even the highly successful Sports For Ethiopia event in the spring.
Want to know what they all share in common?
A long list of small-business sponsors.
Granted, these events wouldn’t even get off the ground without the great work of volunteers. But they also wouldn’t fly if not for the generous support from our business community.
And that’s where we — all of us — need to continue to do our part and shop local as much as we can.
The northern border of St. Albert continues its creep up Highway 2 on what seems like a daily basis.
And throw in the fact that you can order anything from anywhere in the world and have it on your doorstep in days and the good old “shop local” mantra seems a little old fashioned.
Thankfully old fashioned appears to be making a bit of comeback as the push for self-sustainable communities is now in vogue. People want to eat locally grown food and shop at locally-owned stores.
And who can blame them? If given the choice, would you enrich a multi-national corporation with no ties to our community over a business that provides jobs, tax revenue and support for community projects?
We’ve said it in the past, but we’ll say it again: shop local, support local. Do you part and keep Westlock strong for the next century.
