Issue link: http://frankenmuthcvb.uberflip.com/i/1545244
22 Exploring Local is the Best Winter Adventure By Jamie Furbush, CEO, Frankenmuth Chamber of Commerce & CVB While shopping local might get a lot of hype during the holiday season with promotions like "Small Business Saturday", the inside secret is that exploring local during the rest of winter is really the win-win. As we head into hibernation season in Michigan, the cold and snow tend to keep people a bit closer to home. And in Frankenmuth, we sure are lucky to have so many opportunities to explore right outside our own back doors. Winter is the perfect season for locals to reconnect with their community. The streets are less busy and the local business owners are more likely to be around to chat with and learn about what's changing with their business. In the winter, the impact and value of local residents stopping in to any business is recognized and appreciated more than any other time of the year. Taking time to walk around and check out the new selections in a store, or new cars in the showroom, or new menu items at your favorite restaurant or perhaps even just getting out to have a conversation with someone is especially heartwarming in the colder months. We all need that human connection. Our community and all of its offerings are changing every season. Locals connecting with our business community in the winter helps many of them make it through the long, cold winters. So this winter, I encourage you all to bundle up and explore. Go into places you maybe haven't in awhile. Talk to someone new. Ask about their business. Share what you learn with others. And embrace the magic that we have around us not only during the holidays but throughout the entire winter season. Watching kids on the ice rink or sledding hills, meeting neighbors at a new restaurant or an old favorite, taking your book club or beer club out to a new location, or talking to people after church about what is important to their business. There are so many ways we can explore and reconnect with each other over the winter. Frankenmuth is a great place to live and being neighborly comes naturally here. Don't wait until the spring to get out and see each other again!