Love Asheville (The Asheville Grown Business Alliance) and the Asheville City Schools Foundation (ACSF) are uniting to support Asheville city schools and local businesses through the Go Local Card program. The Go Local card is a fund-raising tool for Asheville PTO (parent teacher organization) groups and the ACSF, and keeps our dollars in locally owned businesses while supporting city schools.

AGF Co-Director Leah Ferguson notes, "We are excited to have a partner like the Asheville Grown Business Alliance. Their great vision has brought Asheville forward and is a model for the nation of participatory change. In this partnership we hope to fix a new way of looking at public school- business relationships. Funds from the cards will help to develop more vibrant and excellent public schools and all of the money stays in our community. There is no better win-win situation I can imagine."

The Go Local card, which will be rolled out February 1, 2012, will cost $15 and gives the bearer access to discounts and special offers at locally owned businesses in Asheville for one year. For every card sold, $10 will stay in Asheville City Schools and the ACS Foundation, providing educational equity grants and resources to classrooms and teachers. PTOs will begin pre-selling the card on October 30, 2011.


AGBA Director Franzi Charen says of the initiative “Education is a primary goal of our campaign and our children hold the future of our community in their hands. We are very excited about this opportunity to work with the public school system & think this will be a valuable initiative for all involved."

Asheville businesses are signing onto the program now. ACSF and Love Asheville will take care of marketing and celebrate this partnership with a launch party in February.
For information, please contact Beth Russo at AshevilleGoLocalCard@gmail.com; visit our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/avlgolocal or call 828.713.2504.Read the full article