SMALL TOWN BUSINESS IS SMALL TOWN CULTURE’S BEST DEFENSE By Kyle Lang Canby is on the cusp. We exist in the space between a rural small town and the suburb of a small city. We are close to freeways and yet a little off the beaten path. The folks who find us usually do so intentionally. The people who live here definitely do so intentionally. As more folks find us, and as we grow as a city, we need to make sure that we are preserving the best aspects of the culture that makes Canby unique. No matter what your reason for choosing to live in Canby, in order to make sure it stays the place you love, you need to support the local businesses that make Canby a unique place to live. The Canby Area Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to preserving this culture while pushing Canby to grow and prosper as a vital location for both businesses and residents to land. It is important that we enlist you, our residents, in this effort as well. Without your help, the aspects of Canby’s culture that you love the most might wither and die on the vine, but we all have a choice in this. We all have agency and responsibility in terms of how we interact with our larger community. The Best of Canby is just one outreach to mobilize you, the resident, to realize how important and how unique our town is in the region. By enlisting your help in voting for the Best of Canby, we’ve engaged you in the process of knowing what is available locally. This isn’t our first effort in this vein, and it definitely won’t be the last. The strength of our community is inherently tied to the state of our local economy. One need only look at what happens to small towns during busts like the timber bust, mining busts, or the auto bust to see what happens to communities that don’t have a diverse and vibrant economy to support them. Later in this magazine, you will find some information on how shopping local helps support our community. We encourage you to take a look. The Canby Area Chamber of Commerce is an unceasing advocate for local business. We believe in the good that comes from a diverse and vibrant local economy, but we need your help to make the dream come alive. We are supporting the businesses that are here, we are bringing new businesses to town, and we are looking out for you, the resident, in each of these efforts as well. As you thumb through these pages and celebrate the winners, make sure to make a mental list of new places you can visit to do your part in keeping Canby strong and vital.
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