The holidays are a time to give, and with that shopping locally can support your community. Main Street Washington Director Sarah Grunewaldt explains how each dollar spent locally helps the community as a whole, “About 70-cents of every dollar you spend in town stays within the community and it circulates within the community about seven or eight times before it leaves the community. So, when you spend $1, even just $1, 70-cents of that goes to paying for the schools, paying for the municipal utilities, paying for the cops, the fire department, emergency services, I mean all things we take advantage of and that sometimes take for granted.”

She adds the people who own and operate local businesses aid the community in many ways, “You have local business owners who have kids in the schools, who are in sports, who are in dance, you know they are supportive of your organization as well. They are great, great businesses who are very generous with their time, their talents, and their dollars for our fundraising events, for auctions, for after proms, for you name it, they donate to it. So by supporting them, they can continue to support your organizations.”

Small Business Saturday will be observed the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 30th, with many businesses in downtown Washington taking part.