I am currently the Assistant Treasurer of the Buffalo Cooperative Federal Credit Union.  Though I am a theatrical lighting designer by trade (I have been the lighting designer for Pick of the Crop Dance for nearly 25 years), I am a cooperator by vocation.  I managed a 30 person housing cooperative while in college.  I worked at both the North Buffalo Food Co-op and the Lexington Coop.  I've also been a member of the Brattleboro Co-op in Vermont and the High Falls Co-op in the Hudson Valley.

When Amy came to the credit union to pitch her idea for an organization to promote awareness of the importance of local economy in Buffalo, I immediately knew that this was an idea who's time had come.  The Buffalo cooperative community has been working on this since the seventies.  Buffalo First engenders the same values from a different perspective.  While Cooperatives emphasize democratic community ownership and control of economic resources, Buffalo First approaches people on more familiar territory.  It creates a space where local business owners and local consumers can cooperate with each other to create a more vibrant living environment.  

I am very proud to be part of an organization that strives to create an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual respect in our community.  When we make a point of nurturing the people around us we create a world that is beneficial for everyone.