Hello!
In late April 2020 while sheltering-in-place, I launched this passion project to help support small, local businesses in the best way I knew how:
continue patronize them,
curate helpful information,
and share stories from locals, businesses and organization that keep this community connected.
My Parents Were Small Business Owners
I grew up with immigrant parents that owned a neighborhood grocery store and take-away restaurant for 10 years in a small touristy town in Cairns, Australia, nearby the Great Barrier Reef. My family lived right next door to our shop and every day our family understood what working from home meant to our livelihood.
Discovering Healdsburg
Fast forward to 2008, and another small town across the globe, Healdsburg, CA — immediately charmed me and my triathlon-coach husband Kevin Coady. "You really need to check out Healdsburg!" said one of our groomsmen who gave us a gift certificate to Hotel Healdsburg for our wedding. An auspicious gesture, that planted a seed to live here one day, as we kept returning from the East Bay to stay, dine, and race triathlons.
We're lucky to call Healdsburg our home. And we're learning as we go, how to live and shop more local.
Caroline Bontia
@ShopLocalHealdsburg
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Photo from left to right:
* Little me in front of my family's grocery store in Cairns, AU
* Representing HealdsburgForever.org at the 2023 Future Farmers' of America Parade;
* Celebrating our anniversary dinner at Cyrus; and
* My collab tote bag with in 2023 with Black Oak Coffee, Healdsburg, with 100% of the proceeds donated to non-profit FarmtoFightHunger.com.