Holidays are wonderful times, full of opportunities to remember what is important to you and why you enjoy your friends, family and community.

They are also full of events and messages vying for your attention and time. The Corvallis Independent Business Alliance would like to remind you that it is a good time to help restore some humanity to the holidays as you prepare for your own celebration.

There may be a lot of confusion from all the advertising, glitzy displays and often overwhelming variety of products to choose from. It is easy to forget two simple things: What you buy and whom you support really do make a significant difference to your community.

Shopping locally owned, independently operated businesses is a way to treat others, your community and yourself at the same time. Not only can you can find truly unique, personal gifts for loved ones, but your money stays in your community, circulating up to 3½ times longer than if you spent it at a chain — it helps everyone. And you get a level of customer service that you just won’t find at the chains — after all, these are your friends and neighbors, and they truly appreciate you and your patronage.

As I mentioned about this time last year, for every $100 spent at a national retailer, only $13 is returned to the local economy. If you spend the same $100 at a locally owned business, the local economic impact is $45 — almost 3½ times as much. To further increase your impact, encourage your friends to consider their shopping habits or bring them with you as you visit your favorite shops.

This local benefit has been verified by several studies around the country, and they all agree that the local economy dramatically improves when people make an educated effort to shop locally. To put this into perspective, think about this: If each household in Corvallis simply redirected $100 of planned holiday spending from chain stores to locally owned merchants, the local economic benefit would be approximately $1 million! Just think of the benefit throughout the whole year if this effort continued.

You can also help your favorite school by purchasing CIBA scrip from the parent-teacher organization, with 10 percent of the value going to the program.

These cards can be redeemed at participating CIBA members — a complete list is available on our Web site at www.corvallisIBA.org.

As you make your holiday shopping list this year, keep these points in mind:

• Local merchants spend a much larger portion of their total revenue on local labor.

• Local merchants keep their modest profits in their community.

• Local merchants tend to patronize other local merchants and refer their customers to them.

• Local merchants support local artists and authors, creating further local economic impact.

• Local merchants give a higher percentage of their profits to local charities, schools and other organizations.

Don’t think that “it won’t make much difference” or “it was just a couple of items.” You really do make a difference in determining the future of the community in which your children will grow up and you will one day retire. CIBA thanks you for your support and wishes you a happy and healthy holiday season.