The Ceres Chamber of Commerce, invigorated by new blood and vision, believes that businesses in Ceres can be strengthened by getting locals to stay put to shop whenever possible. And to formulate its plans to kick off its "Shop Local" campaign, the Chamber will be hosting a Friday evening coffee and conversation. The event, intended as a business to business networking session, will be held from 7:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. at Supermom's Frozen Yogurt in the Richland Shopping Center.

"This is not some cutesy marketing campaign that we're talking about," said Renee Ledbetter, president of the Ceres Chamber of Commerce. "This is a huge economic development component that is going to educate our citizens on why they need to shop locally."

The Chamber has assembled a 10-point explanation of how local shopping and "how their sales tax transports into the services that the city provides. Not a lot of people understand that so we want to continue to educate them on why they should shop local."