In 2006, Local First Utah hired its first executive director, Gavin Noyes, a young local artist and social activist. Gavin is best known in the community as the former executive director of Save Our Canyons, a strong advocacy group working successfully to save the foothills and canyons around Salt Lake from ravenous development. Under Gavin’s watch, Local First Utah will certainly grow by leaps and bounds.

The campaign began in November 2005 with a modest Buy Local First Week focused on education and a showing of “Independent America.” The week’s activities included a fundraiser at Squatter’s Brewery and prize giveaways at the film screening. Media coverage included a press conference before the week began, held at Spotted Dog Creamery. A number of city and county government officials spoke in support of the campaign, while Salt Lake County announced a pledge of $20,000 in this year’s budget for Local First. In addition, an early-morning news show highlighted “Buy Local Week” by featuring Local First businesses throughout the week.

The campaign continued in the summer of 2006 in partnership with the popular Salt Lake Jazz Festival in downtown Salt Lake as part of its Independents Week. On July 8, Local First was featured at the well-loved farmer’s market sponsored by the Downtown Alliance in Pioneer Park, a few blocks west of downtown Salt Lake. Local First also presented a panel of city and government officials from around the state to talk about the importance of buying locally, and the week wrapped up on Saturday night with an “Indepen-Dance” featuring a great local DJ and African drumming.

Local First Utah is also working behind the scenes to leverage the efforts of people already excited about local economic development. Kinde Nebeker, a former board member of both Vest Pocket and Local First, contacted Utah’s Own, the state department of agriculture’s marketing program for Utah products, to work with Local First in some capacity yet to be defined.

As Local First grows, it will support a critical mass of businesses in each Utah community, much the way that BALLE’s main office supports its decentralized networks. The communities will all use Buy Local First Utah’s logo and branding. The campaign will be supporting several communities including the west side of Salt Lake, the poorer, more diverse part of the city, and Magna, a growing bedroom community about a half hour’s drive from Salt Lake.

Local First is looking to get funding from both private and corporate sources, including bank funds available through the Community Reinvestment Act. The campaign received $20,000 from the city in 2005, and $20,000 from both the city and the county in 2006.

“We’re amazed at how people respond to this,” says Kinde of her Local First organizing efforts. “The time is ripe. The issues we're talking about here, because they are positive, not anti-anything, really resonate with everyone. It’s a difficult idea on some level, because our society and economic dynamic is fundamentally not local anymore, but when people get the connection between how they choose to spend their dollars and the strength of the fabric of the community, it becomes more clear. We’re not taking an absolutist stand. We’re just asking for people to simply be aware of their choices."