Paul Saginaw, co-founder of Zingerman's, spoke about building a local "living economy" at Monday night's Think Local First annual meeting. (Photo by the writer.)

Paul Saginaw joked that during his senior year of high school, he was voted Least Likely to Have a Positive Impact on Society. The remark drew a laugh from the crowd of more than 100 people attending Think Local First’s annual meeting on Monday night – most of them know the Zingerman’s co-founder is an advocate for socially responsible business, as well as a driving force behind the nonprofit Food Gatherers, which launched 21 years ago this week.

For many years, that high school description was “so true,” Saginaw said. “But for the second half of my life, I’ve been trying to prove them wrong.”

Saginaw, the evening’s featured speaker, talked passionately about the need for local economies built around “human-scale” enterprises, with businesses as a positive force for social change. He described several ways that the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, a national group, is supporting the efforts of small, independent businesses. The goal? “What we want to do is change the world,” he said.

BALLE – Building a National Network

Saginaw serves as vice chair of the board of directors for BALLE, the acronym of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. Judy Wicks – the group’s founder and owner of White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia – was the speaker at last year’s Think Local First annual meeting. [See Chronicle coverage: "Thinking (Eating, Drinking) Local First"]

At Monday’s event, held at Big George’s on West Stadium Boulevard, Saginaw described several initiatives that BALLE is undertaking. The group is a “network of networks,” he said – Think Local First is an affiliate – representing over 20,000 independent businesses in the U.S. and Canada. Their goal is to strengthen and connect these networks, helping communities build sustainable economies through independent retail, sustainable agriculture, green building, renewable energy, community capital, and zero-waste manufacturing. The organization is eight years old, Saginaw said, “but it’s starting to get traction now.”

Saginaw said that BALLE has secured major funding from the NoVo Foundation, led by the son and daughter-in-law of financier Warren Buffet. BALLE also has hired a new director, Michelle Long, who previously was co-founder and executive director of Sustainable Connections in Bellingham, Washington – an organization similar to Think Local First that eclipsed their local chamber of commerce in membership, Saginaw said.

BALLE will be pushing for public policy changes that favor small, independent businesses, Saginaw said. Right now, it’s easier to withdraw all of your savings and lose it gambling in Detroit’s Greektown Casino than it is to invest in a local business, he said, and that needs to change. It’s part of the concept of community capital – keeping dollars local, whether it’s buying from a locally owned shop or investing in a local business.

In addition, BALLE’s research and public policy director, Michael Shuman, will be putting out a monthly e-zine – a magazine distributed via email and other electronic means – on issues related to sustainable, living economies. Shuman is the author of “The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition.” Copies of the book were raffled off during Monday’s event.

During the first part of his talk, Saginaw focused on the efforts of BALLE. He devoted the rest of his speech to an impassioned defense for the virtues of building sustainable local communities. In many cases, business has become an instrument of greed rather than one of social good, he said. But as local business owners, he continued, we know that business can be beautiful – an expression of personal creativity, providing meaningful work to others at a fair wage, and creating a mechanism for social change.

The latter kind of business, he said, is the foundation for a healthy community and a healthy democracy.

Think Local First: Looking Ahead

As part of Monday’s annual meeting, Ingrid Ault, executive director of Think Local First, gave brief remarks before Saginaw’s presentation. Ault said the group is focused on two main goals for the coming year: 1) overhauling their website, with help from Bonnie Valentine of The Whole Brain Group, and 2) applying to become a 501(c)3 nonprofit. The group’s current status as a 501(c)6 nonprofit does not allow them to apply for certain grants or take advantage of tax-deductible donations, she said.

Longer term, Ault said they hope to get sufficient funding to turn her part-time position into a full-time one, so that she’d have more time to devote to the buy local movement.

Natalie Marble, owner of Ann Arbor Cooks, sprinkles sugar on pumpkin crème brûlée to be served at the Think Local First gathering. Ann Arbor Cooks was one of several local businesses that provided food and beverages for the event. (Photo by the writer.)

Bonnie Valentine of The Whole Brain Group holds up a bowl to collect business cards – later, cards were drawn for raffle prizes. (Photo by the writer.)

Charlie Hickman, left, draws a business card out of the bowl to see who'll win a copy of Michael Shuman's book, "The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition." Looking on is Charlie's brother Joe Hickman. In the background is Bob Dascola of Dascola Barbers. (Photo by the writer.)

Kelly Zorn of Z Design Studio, far right, was recognized for designing the recently published Think Local First resource guide. In the foreground are Claire and Paul Tinkerhess, owners of Fourth Ave Birkenstock and Fourth Ave Sleep Shop. (Photo by the writer.)

Paul Saginaw

Editor’s note: The following is an edited version of a letter that Paul Saginaw, co-founder of Zingerman’s, sent to his partners following a heart attack he suffered last month. Here at The Chronicle, we wish Paul all the best in his recovery, and thank him for sharing this cautionary tale.

Although hard for me to believe, I did, in fact, suffer a small heart attack. I also understand that if I do as I’ve been told, I am going to be okay. 

I believe that it occurred on Thursday night during a tennis match when it felt like “an elephant was stepping on my chest” and someone was pulling my arms out of their sockets. (What’s scary is that this is exactly how it was described in the book Lori [Saginaw] brought home for me, on page 20: The No Bull Book on Heart Disease, Okner and Clorfene.) 

Because I have the lethal combination of high tolerance to pain combined with low intelligence, I continued to play tennis for 2 1/2 hours more despite my partner’s willingness to forfeit. And although we lost, I have to say I played some of my best tennis. Probably due to my lacking the energy to over-hit the ball and having only enough in me to barely manage the basics. In retrospect, passing up the beer afterwards should have been a clue, but instead of the ER, I headed home and directly to bed.

Friday evening climbing up the back steps, I started to sweat profusely and felt uncomfortably fatigued. But once again, I missed the obvious clue of not having the normal desire to overeat or drink.  

Saturday morning at the gym on the elliptical, that nasty elephant pain returned and it got the owner and my trainer, Heather, (a good Roadhouse customer and wife of Carsten Hohnke, the councilperson who helped save West Side Farmer’s Market this year) to come over and ask why I was moving like a turtle. “Angina.” Whoa, she yanked me off the machine, told me to get my ass to the doctor, and forbid me to come back until I had a doctor’s release. Liability, I am thinking.  

Then walking two blocks to my car I actually had to stop to rest twice. So maybe by now slightly shaken, I finally called Lori in California. And though I protested that I would see a doctor on Monday, she used some unauthorized tactics to extract my promise to get to the ER that afternoon.  

At the ER were the usual suspects – a crack head with self-inflicted wounds and his scantily dressed girlfriend screaming for someone to do something (definitely Jerry Springer Show candidates), a man handcuffed to his gurney, a baby, two small children, an elderly woman, and me. Well, I found that just mentioning chest pain got me cuts in line and whoosh – I was ahead of everyone.  

After the EKG, it really started to speed up – wheelchair, bed, IV’s, monitors, lots of questions. The attending physician came in, sat down, looked me in the eye and said, “Mr. Saginaw, you have experienced a heart attack.” To which I argued, “I don’t really think so.” To which he replied, “It’s not my opinion, it’s a fact that the test results indicate.” For some reason he believed the EKG and cardiac enzyme levels in my blood. 

“Wow. Is this really happening?” I thought. I’m supposed to be at the Downtown Home and Garden annual summer party right now. Dancing to the Lady Sunshine Band, overeating, and drinking.  

The words “heart attack” are shocking. Heart attacks happen to other people. But he had finally gotten my attention and suddenly I was taking stock of my life. Are things in order? Have I been a good husband, a good father, a good son, and a good partner? Am I at peace with the people in my life? Are there things that have been left unsaid? I’m not joking – actually serious as a heart attack. That doctor got my mind racing as fast as my poor heart. 

Before I knew it, I’m admitted, wheeled into a room, tested more times then a laboratory rat, and scheduled for a catheterization on Monday morning. My cardiologist neighbor, Jim Bengston, did me the favor of deciding I’d already administered my own stress test over the past three days so we could skip that step. Thanks a lot, Jim. 

Next morning, Sunday, Rabbi Leibowitz and Father Mangigian arrived to administer my last rites – a #48/old – and I savored every bite as I tasted what I would be missing from then on. 

The catheterization worked like a charm and showed that my right anterior coronary artery was 98% blocked, so Dr. Bengston efficiently installed a stent to open it up. He saw the left main coronary artery was 30% blocked but decided to leave it alone and treat it with drugs and changing my lifestyle. Next day I was discharged with more medications than a pharmacy and the idea of this new lifestyle.

At my neighborhood CVS, it was a very humbling and humiliating moment when I purchased a “7 day AM/PM” pill dispenser. What’s unbelievable is that I stood there actually comparing all the different models and weighing their merits. Well Paulie, welcome to the aging process. I hope it doesn’t get much more thrilling than this cuz my heart can’t take it anymore… 

The docs discharging me emphasized that I needed to start taking it easy. “Learn to relax,” they all said. Well, I have begun to try to relax these past few days and I will tell you that it is harder work than it would seem. Definitely not the sort of work to which I am accustomed. Yesterday I sat on my living room couch and just read (fiction, no less) and watched all the neighborhood activity through the front windows. It dawned on me that the only time in my adult life that I have ever done anything remotely similar was when I was immobile with a high fever.  

It’s hard to pull back and stop. It takes conscious effort because everything around me just keeps going on and no one wants to feel left out of the action. But in slowing down I have been given the rare opportunity to actually consider what’s important and contemplate what really matters to me. My sons have noticed and my wife has even complimented me. It’s going to take me a while to get the hang of this. I will be taking the next several weeks to figure it all out and I’m considering not returning to work until September 7.  

There’s actually a simple moral to this story and it is this: Pay attention to what your body is saying to you; life is short enough without shortening it through carelessness, stupidity or arrogance. I feel humbled and grateful. And this also occurs to me: We all work so damn hard, committed to providing the Zingerman’s Experience for our customers, our co-workers, the Community and one another. But if each of us doesn’t provide that quality experience to our own individual selves, how can we count on doing it for anyone else? We cannot. Would each of you please slow down, relax, and take better care of yourself – starting today.