Discounts bring customers, network to local businesses

PHOTO BY: Carmen Forman Employee Matthew Clinton at local business Stash watches over shopping customers.

One discount card in the Oklahoma City metro area is bringing local businesses more customers and creating a local business network in Oklahoma.

The Keep it Local OK program gives cardholders discounts at participating local businesses as a way of keeping local money in the Oklahoma area.

The program started in Oklahoma City and due to its success, it has spread to Norman, Edmond, Yukon, Mustang, Moore and Midwest City.

The project is the brainchild of Bryce Bandy and Chris Branson. They had seen similar programs implemented in other cities and wanted to start something in Oklahoma.

“We saw a lot of different initiatives out there to encourage people to shop local, but none of them really gave them the tools to do so,” Bandy said.

So their idea to really make a difference was to have local businesses provide incentives to patrons that purchased the $10 Keep it Local OK card. The 26 local businesses that are a part of the program in Norman offer incentives from 10 percent off food and drinks at Crimson & Whipped Cream to buy one get one free snow cones at Eskimo Snow.

Bandy and Branson started the business in the hopes of keeping money within Oklahoma, rather than it leave the state when spent at chain companies.

The businesses that participate in the program pay a flat fee of $500 to be a part of the group and recoup some of that money by selling the cards.

According to the Keep it Local OK website, $73 of every $100 dollars spent at local businesses stays in the local economy. While only $43 dollars stays when spent at non-locally owned businesses.

Stash employee, Matthew Clinton said Keep it Local also provides valuable advertising that draws in customers.

“They do a really good job of promoting people on Facebook,” Clinton said. “If you post something, they’ll repost it, which goes to a whole new group of people that aren’t on your Facebook likes.”

If a business is having a promotion or sale then Keep it Local will post it on their Facebook wall or tweet about it, Clinton said.

Clinton said Stash recoups some of its $500 fee when people buy cards and when people come into the store to shop. People can purchase cards online at keepitlocalok.com or buy them at Stash, Crimson & Whipped Cream or Forward Foods, among other places in Norman.

“They join because they want to reward loyal customers, and they hope to get new customers from being tied in that network,” Bandy said of local business.

Keep it Local OK’s upcoming projects include a mobile app to find places where shoppers can use their cards and a local business gift registry. The projects hope to be started in the new year, Bandy said.

PHOTO BY: Carmen Forman

Stash, a local store that sells everything from art to unique knick knacks, encourages shoppers to spend money at local businesses by being a part of the Keep it Local program.

'Dead child reporters' teach dedication

Photo By: Carmen Forman

Former reporters, Britten Follet and Cherokee Ballard talk to Gaylord students about the Kelsey Smith-Briggs case.

After extensively covering the case, the two decided to publish a book of their findings called, "Who Killed Kelsey."

Two "dead child reporters" talked to Gaylord students about the importance of holding state agencies accountable in order to promote transparency in government.

Oklahoma journalists Cherokee Ballard and Britten Follet took on the Oklahoma Department of Human Services and tried to make it more transparent in the crusade to find out who killed Kelsey Smith-Briggs.

Ballard and Follet started covering the Briggs case in 2005 after Kelsey's death at age two.

The two journalists dug deeper into the multiple child abuse reports made to Oklahoma DHS to try and find the killer. They also covered the trials of Kelsey's mother and stepfather.

Both Briggs' mother, Raye Dawn Smith and her then husband Michael Porter are serving more than 20 years in jail time for child abuse.

The two reporters had a tough time getting any information out of DHS as to why Briggs was put back into the custody of her mother after reports of child abuse were filed. Ballard and Follet also questioned why the caseworker on Briggs' case was not fired after the death of the two year old.

"When you try to hold a state agency accountable you get a lot of doors slammed in your face," Ballard said.

Follet said they tried to get both sides of the story but DHS never shared theirs. DHS avoided saying it had done anything wrong.

Follet did a story on Briggs' caseworker, who, after Kelsey's death, was put on another case of a child being abused. After placing the child back in the custody of father, the child was killed.

Follet would also do stories on calls she received from other people reporting cases of child abuse or flaws on the part of DHS.

Stories by these two journalists during and after the Briggs' trial helped hold DHS at fault for the abuse and death of innocent children.

"Reporters can help hold state agencies accountable," Ballard said.

Occupy OKC mourns loss

Friends and family of a deceased Occupy OKC protester mourned their loss at a memorial service Saturday.

Mourners shared tears, laughter and stories about the deceased at the service, and vow to keep him in their thoughts and actions always.

18-year-old Louis Cameron Rodriguez, who went by "The Poet" was found dead in his tent at the Occupy OKC protest in Kerr Park Monday, friend Mark Faulk said.

Members of the Occupy OKC movement banded together to bring Rodriguez's mother and two sisters in for the service and the burial, friend Beth Isbell said.

A friend of the deceased, who did not wish to be named, paid to fly his mother in for the memorial service.

"I feel kind of blessed that I was able to meet him, so when I found out the family couldn't afford to get here I just wanted to do what I could," Rodriguez's friend said.

Rodriguez came to the camp about two weeks before his death, Isbell said. The homeless Florida-native traveled the country and joined the Occupy movement when he came to Oklahoma City.

At the service, mourners spoke animatedly about Rodriguez and read one of his poems, called "Occupy." Mourners then placed flowers around Rodriguez's tent and shared anecdotes about the man over a community dinner.

"It's not easy to fall in love with someone in a couple of weeks," Faulk said.

The cause of death has yet to be determined.

Video By: Carmen Forman :46