In The News

The Enterprise Newspaper- April 10, 2008

Community Club To Aid Shoppers And Non-Profits

Posted in: Region
By MICHAEL C. BAILEY
Apr 10, 2008 - 2:32:35 PM

A new initiative is motivating Cape Cod residents to support their communities and “buy local first.”
     The Cape Cod Community Club is the local extension of the three-year-old Our Island Club of Martha’s Vineyard, which boasts more than 2,500 members and more than 100 participating businesses. In addition to providing Islanders with savings on a wide variety of purchases, the club has raised more than $60,000 for local non-profit organizations.
     The original Our Island Club is the brainchild of Islanders Geoffrey Rose and Jonathan Bernstein, both year-round residents of the Vineyard. According to Mr. Rose, Mr. Bernstein conceived the idea “and he was looking to find someone to put it into effect. That’s where I came in.”
     Mr. Bernstein is a real estate agent on the Island, and Mr. Rose runs CapeandIslandsGiftCertificates.com, an on-line gift certificate business that works with more than two hundred businesses on the Cape and Islands.
     The goal of Our Island Club was to help Island-based businesses weather the slower off-season months by giving residents an incentive to shop locally, rather than buying their goods on the mainland or over the Internet, while at the same time supporting non-profit organizations.
     The Cape Cod chapter will formally launch this November. For an annual fee, members will receive a card that will entitle them to discounts of up to 20 percent at approximately 300 local businesses, including service businesses, restaurants and retail stores.
     Through the club’s “Cape Cod Angels” program, families in need will be provided with free memberships. Mr. Rose said the club will work with local agencies such as human service departments to identify needy households.
     Businesses also pay an annual membership fee, 10 percent of which is donated to local charities. Mr. Rose explained that the Cape version of the program will differ in that the non-profits and charities will be pre-selected, whereas merchants enrolled in the Our Island Club select their beneficiaries.
     “That would just be too difficult to do on the Cape, logistically,” because of the far greater number of non-profit entities, Mr. Rose said. “Right now I’m in the process of trying to identify a half-dozen charities on the Cape.”
     Two have already signed agreements with the Cape Cod Community Club: Cape Cod Healthcare and the Alzheimer’s Association of Cape Cod and the Islands.
     In exchange for the membership fee and providing a discount to shoppers using the Cape Cod Community Club card, participating businesses will benefit from added exposure through the club’s ongoing collaborative marketing campaign. Charter members, for example, will be a part of the club’s grand rollout campaign later this year.
     “I’ve received some very, very positive responses from the businesses I’ve talked to over the past week or so,” Mr. Rose said.
     The individual membership fee is $39 per person ($29 for senior citizens age 65 and older). Charter business memberships are $250 for those who join before May 31, 2008, and the fee includes six free individual memberships. Businesses signing up after May 31 pay $300 and receive four free individual memberships.
     For more information on the Cape Cod Community Club or to apply for a membership, visit the club’s official website at www.capecodcommunityclub.com

The Cape Cod Times- May 6, 2008

Cape club to offer local discounts, help charities

By Sarah Shemkus

STAFF WRITER

May 06, 2008

A new business coming to Cape Cod this fall aims to encourage consumers to buy locally all year long, while also helping local charities.

"You can look at all the different studies and it's very clear that the more money that is spent at a local businesses, the more money stays within a local community," explained Geoff Rose, the founder of the Cape Cod Community Club. "That really goes to heart of a healthier community."

The cost to join the club, he said, will be $39. Ten percent of this fee will be donated to the member's choice of eligible community charities, which currently include Cape and Islands United Way, Alzheimer's Services of Cape Cod and the Islands and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Cape Cod and the Islands.

Members will be entitled to discounts at participating businesses across the Cape.

Twelve businesses have agreed to be involved with the endeavor so far, including Lambert's Rainbow Fruit in Hyannis, Barbo's Furniture and restaurants in Hyannis, Falmouth and Yarmouth. Rose hopes to have as many as 300 businesses, ranging from convenience stores to professional services, involved by the time the club is launched in the fall.

Rose also expects to work with community organizations to identify needy families who will be given club membership at no cost.

The business is modeled after a similar club that Rose, an Oak Bluffs resident, founded three years ago on Martha's Vineyard.

Since inception, he said, the island club has signed up more than 2,500 members, attracted more than 100 participating businesses and raised approximately $60,000 for area charities.