Think of buying local as choosing to plant flowers in a neighborhood park rather than landscaping parkland 50 miles away where you and your neighbors won’t get to see and enjoy it day to day. Moreover, consider how the need for looking after the local park system becomes even greater when the green space in town has been decimated by blight.

Participants of the “Buy Local First” initiative met Wednesday morning at the Wilmington Donatos Pizzeria for their monthly get-together as they try to grow the movement’s momentum. So far, so good, seemed to be the assessment.

“It’s been obviously well received,” said Chris Schock, director of the Clinton County Regional Planning Commission. An initial order of 500 free “Buy Local First” key chains has almost been run through in two and a half weeks, grounds for a recent re-order, advocates said Wednesday.

Persons can show the key chains to receive local loyalty specials at participating local businesses, where the key chains are distributed.

Additional evidence the buy-local movement is gaining strength is the 212 residents who have joined the Local Loyalty e-mail list — 175 of which signed on in the past month.

The buy-local drive has its own Web site at www.buylocalcc.com. In the past month, 321 visitors viewed the Web site on 642 occasions, with an average time of 5 minutes and 43 seconds, according to Taylor Stuckert, co-director of Energize Clinton County which maintains the Web site.

Among other things, the site has the latest specials for key chain holders.

Schock said, “We want to focus on buying local because in a situation where our economic development future is often at risk or in the hands of other people, we realize this is one important effort that does make a difference locally and can really affect the way in which our local businesses and our local entrepreneurs are supported and enhanced through the process.”

Clinton County Commissioners Dave Stewart and Randy Riley were on hand for the 8 a.m. Wednesday meeting. They gave an official proclamation complimenting the network of local residents and businesses for forming the Buy Local program.

The proclamation says the Board of Clinton County Commissioners supports the efforts to raise awareness of the economic impact in buying local, and the commissioners encouraged all Clinton Countians to buy accordingly.