Our little Bellingham community is lucky to have Sustainable Connections as a guiding force! Sustainable Connections works with local, independently owned businesses that have the autonomy to make any transformational change in their business that they can imagine… reexamining where we buy goods and services, how we consume energy, grow and distribute our food, build homes, and even, how we define success in business. They support a community of innovators in green building, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, supporting independent businesses in town centers, and mentoring a new breed of entrepreneurs that have designed their business with a sustainable vision. One of the many ways they help our community is to hold an annual online auction. They’ve just opened up the bidding for this year’s auction: the third annual Bidding For Good (aka Bid Local First) auction and you’ve got till December 5th to score your own local goodies!
The Bid Local First auction will run from November 22nd to December 5th, with proceeds going to Sustainable Connections to support the Food and Farming Good Food Challenge! and the Think Local First campaign. The auction includes ALL local experiences and items – including an assortment of local coffee, a shopping spree at a local plant nursery, one year of locally made fresh pasta and SO MUCH more! Best of all, there’s lots of one-of-a-kind experiences that are perfect for holiday gifts – AND you get to feel good while buying them! That’s definitely a win-win situation.
We partnered up with two other awesome local companies to provide a unique local experience: Bocce, Bread and Beer! Enjoy a day “in town” with 2 or 3 hours of bocce on the original Boccemon bocce court located at the corner of Iron and Carolina streets. Treat up to 8 friends to a few games of bocce, sandwich lunches from Avenue Bread next door on James Street, and wash it down with a glass or two of great brew from Boundary Bay Brewery. Local businesses providing a local experience! Bocce instruction provided for the group as well as a garden setting for your meal. The estimated value of this experience is $200, but the opening bid is set at $60…hurry and place your bids on this one!
Locally-owned Boccemon is a small family owned corporation that builds Bocce courts and sells Bocce supplies. The company operates utilizing 100% Green Power and produces at or near Zero Waste capacity. In addition, re-use and sustainability have always been part of their business plan. Approximately 95% of their outbound packaging is utilized directly from post consumer waste items…it all comes from other company’s waste streams and without recycling or modification they are utilized for second use. The aim of Boccemon is to provide the best ownership experience available from a natural court surface. The goal was to have a premium roll, reduced bounce, and with minimal maintenance. We focused on a shell surface initially due our proximity to oyster farms along the Pacific coast. It soon became clear that rendered shell alone lacks some critical qualities so we concentrated on other natural/organic ingredients to improve the blend. We have experience with landscaping, construction, design, and perhaps more importantly – we play bocce!
Bellingham based Avenue Bread is a growing and expanding local bakery. They are proud to support other local businesses, whenever possible, by purchasing local ingredients and utilizing local services. It is important to their business to engage in responsible and environmentally-friendly business practices while serving slice after slice, and piece after piece, of the area’s finest breads and pastries. Avenue bread is proud to support local businesses when purchasing ingredients and services. When you shop at Avenue Bread you support not only one local business, but all those they buy from. The bakery purchases sprouts from Happy Valley, organic mixed greens and soup ingredients from Double Rainbow Farms, pickles and sauerkraut from Pleasant Valley Farms, hazelnuts from Holmquist Hazelnut Farm, flour from Fairhaven Flour Mill, milk from Edaleen dairy and ham from Hempler’s Meats.
We are proud to work with all of these local businesses and hope that you’ll help us continue to strengthen our local economy and community. Cheers from all of us here at Boundary Bay Brewery!
Oh, and speaking of Bellingham and Sustainable Connections, don’t forget to tune in to PBS on the Friday after Thanksgiving to catch the airing of “Fixing the Future” – a one hour special about communities (including our very own BELLINGHAM!!) across America using innovative approaches to create jobs and build prosperity in our new economy. Don’t forget…7pm on channel 9!
Bellinghams Best Beer 