"Buy Hawaii"

In reading JohnfromBerkeley's blog today, I remembered an old, local campaign called "Buy Hawaii". Here's the comment in regards to his wonderful post about supporting local retailers:

It’s such a great and economical idea to buy locally made products during your vacation in Hawaii. In fact, there was a government campaign back in 2001 called “Buy Hawaii” to help promote buying local goods over imported mainland ones! A nifty “Buy Hawaii” sign, with the Hawaiian flag, was made and distributed to all retailers supporting the campaign and who sold local products, which would let buyers know where to shop to support the cause. The goal, of course, was to keep local money in the local economy instead of filtering it over seas.

When I googled the issue to find pictures of the sign and the government page about the campaign (which I used extensively when I wrote a middle school speech about “Buy Hawaii”), I COULDN’T FIND IT! No sign pictures! No government page! Where did it go? Where did our support for “Buy Hawaii” and local retailers disappear to? In these horrible economic times, it is more important than ever to support each other, to support our fellow kamaaina by choosing their stores and products over others and keep their jobs and shops alive. We need to keep our money in our state and “Buy Hawaii”.

I am so grateful for Hawaii lovers like yourself who, as you said, “want to honor hardworking Hawaiian businesses”. Our culture is so unique, and in order to preserve it we need to work together. Understandably times are tough and money is tight, but when we do take out our wallets, if we “Buy Hawaii”, we are helping to save not only jobs and businesses, but our culture and way of life. Mahalo for your support.

So remember keiki: live, love, and "Buy Hawaii". Shoots cuz, we go.