Did you take advantage of the deals offered during Restaurant Week, which ended yesterday? Do you plan to attend tomorrow’s 30th Annual Fall Festival Street Fair?

Local merchants are hoping the answer to both questions is yes. Besides offering these events, the Garden City Chamber of Commerce is hoping residents will take notice of an aggressive 15-week advertising and marketing campaign designed to drive business to the Village and to keep residents shopping locally.

The campaign is being organized by the Merchants Group, an independent committee of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce consisting of several independent Village retail establishments. The group, which formed several months ago, has held 12 meetings to brainstorm ways to increase local business.

John Wilton of Garden City Properties, the group’s chairperson, spoke at the October 15th meeting of the Garden City Board of Trustees. “There’s excitement,” he said, when referring to the merchants involved in the advertising and marketing project. “The merchants are dipping into their pockets. But they are going to need us to dip into our pockets to give them the recompense so they can dip into their pockets.”

Wilton said local merchants have been faced with significant challenges. Many landlords, who initially showed compassion to struggling businesses and attempted to avoid rent increases, have now reached a frustration point as they too have difficulty surviving in a difficult economy that shows little sign of recovering in the immediate future.

“The merchants have really gone out of their way over all these years to contribute to almost every organization you can imagine. They’re asking for a little bit of payback. That old ‘pay it forward’ concept is now ‘let’s pay it forward to the merchants.’ It’s helped maintain the integrity of the Village, and that’s what we’re striving for.”

Wilton said the marketing campaign will emphasize the fact those who choose to shop locally will often be dealing directly with the owner of the business establishment. Four-color flyers asking people to “Take Another Look at Garden City...Where We Take Hospitality Seriously” will appear in many store windows.

Althea Robinson, executive director of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce, announced to the Garden City Board of Trustees that several advertisements are planned for Newsday, as well as the local newspapers. The first full-page ad ran in Newsday on October 15.

For more information on the Garden City Shopping initiative, visit www.gardencityshopping.com .