I want to share with you a story of what supporting local looks like at the ground level.

This week we closed a circle when it comes to community connections. In the first weeks of the Covid shutdown we got to know one of our customers very well as we would deliver a brown bag filled with dishwash cotton to her house on an almost weekly basis. This 91-year-old lady whose eyesight was dimming, turned to her peg-loom to produce some gorgeous knit-woven dishcloths both to keep her busy, along with the intent of creating gifts for her nearest once the world opened up again.

Her house was on route home for my store manager and me so this was an easy detour, and over time it grew into a social visit first on the porch or the park across the street, and then as the first non-household home I entered into for a cup of tea. I was privy to the multiple piles of dishcloth bundles that started to sprout, but also to the stories of how gifts of these bundles came to be used as chair-buffs, the very best oil-change cloths and prized facial scrubs.

Last month I was approached by a neighbour that was looking for handmade items to add to gift packages for a local fundraiser, and I was able to purchase 60 of these prized dishclothes. ‘Sixteen?’ our now 94 year old maker asked me. ‘No, 60’ I replied and then we proceeded to make the smallest of dents into her gorgeous piles.

These are the connects that feeds me and my staff in the work we do at Baaad Annas. Luckily this isn’t a scarce occurrence, but one that so nicely reflects the importance of community and why it continually needs the be nourished.