Oakwood is encouraging its employees to spend their shopping dollars in the city they work.

It’s no secret Dearborn businesses are struggling. Hit any local restaurant or store at lunch hour and you can see it for yourself. But what if those who travel to Dearborn each day for work made a conscious decision to spend a portion of their shopping dollars in the very city they worked?

If you’re Oakwood Healthcare in Dearborn and your 6,000 employees and 1,300 physicians were encouraged to do just that we think the impact could be a positive one.

That’s exactly what Mary Zatina, senior vice president of government relations, corporate planning and communications at Oakwood Healthcare Inc., who works in Dearborn, is doing. She is encouraing Oakwood employees in Dearborn and at the company’s 37 other locations in metro Detroit to spend their lunch dollars or running errand dollars in the cities in which they work. That’s a total of 10,000 Oakwood employees, which is a lot of buying power.

“We want people to chose us (Oakwood) so we need to do the same,” Zatina said. “We need to spend our money where we earn our money. We need to give back to the community.”

We think it’s a great idea and one that many other companies with operations in Dearborn should adopt, too.

Oakwood employees are quietly telling areas businesses that they have their support by simply leaving behind their business cards in those glass bowls some restaurants keep near  the cash register that encourage patrons to drop their card off.

One of the labels on the back of an Oakwood business card.

On the backside of these Oakwood business cards are sticker labels that let the owner of the store or restaurant know Oakwood employees are trying to do their part to help during these trying economic times.

One label reads: “Times are tough, but we will survive this economic challenge together as a community — that’s why I chose to bring my business here.”

Another one reads:  “Consumers have choices, and I choose to spend my money in the community in which I make my money. We are stronger together.”

And still another reads: “I shop where I work! We’ll survive this economic crisis if we support our community together.”

The labels were the brainchild of Zatina who says they are now spreading like “wild fire” at Oakwood in just a month since it began.  “It is a little something to show the community that we care. We are in this together and we are going to make it together.”

Well said.