BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) organizes a Buy Local Week every year during the first week in December. This year, business districts around the U.S. and Canada will be celebrating Buy Local Week with contests, neighborhood events, window posters identifying independent locally owned businesses, and proclamations from local mayors declaring December 1-7 Buy Local Week. Click here (http://www.livingeconomies.org/netview/lf-campaigns) to find out more about BALLE's Buy Local Week and its ongoing Local First Campaign to educate consumers about the economic and social advantages that independent and local businesses bring to a community.