Collaboration does not mean: 

• Forming another committee.

• One person doing all the work while everyone else watches.

• Everybody agreeing on everything.

• Anyone giving up ownership of their own good ideas.

Collaboration means people, organizations, and businesses working together around a big idea.  

Let me share a story with you about how toilet paper became the big idea, and how the county collaborated to shop local.

Shop Local

It’s not a new idea. Local dollars circulate. Businesses survive. Communities thrive. We know the data. We’ve seen the charts.

And yet… easier said than done.

Convenience wins. It’s just easier to click “buy now.”
Location pulls us away. You head to the nearest bigger town for one thing, and suddenly you’ve filled your gas tank, grabbed lunch, and hit three other stores.
And price? Those big box stores can almost always beat the local guy.

So how do you actually change behavior and get people to shop local?

I worked at the Greater Franklin County Chamber of Commerce in Iowa. I handled communications, and Brook—our executive director—was the kind of leader who understood something a lot of communities miss:

If you want something to stick, you don’t do it alone. You invite people in. (That’s collaboration.)

What if we asked everyone to buy just one product locally? Not everything. Not a complete overhaul. Just one thing.

Something everyone uses.
Something everyone needs.
Something that could actually make a difference.

His answer?

Toilet paper.

We started with our 3 county wide local grocery stores. Brook and I didn’t just ask them to carry it—they already did. We asked them to be part of something. To have fun with it. To build displays, decorate the aisles, slip flyers into bags.

And they said, ‘Sure, why not?’

Then we created marketing pieces, sent out press releases, talked it up on the radio, and invited our members to join us.

But here’s where it really got interesting.

Because we didn’t control it.

We shared the idea—and the community ran with it.

Specialty shops started carrying toilet paper and turned their windows into conversation starters. A used car dealer offered a year’s supply of toilet paper with every car sold. The hardware store built a display with a PVC “man” sitting on a toilet—because they sell toilets, of course.

Local Hispanic retailers joined in with creative, colorful displays that brought even more energy to the campaign. The County Fair said, “Come set up at the entrance,” and suddenly we had a booth where we talked toilet paper while the local radio station broadcast live alongside us.

And then our youth showed up in the best way.

Two high school students partnered with the county sheriff for a Make A Difference Day project. They collected rolls of toilet paper to donate to Camp Courageous—a place the sheriff already supported by making toys each year.

Different people. Different roles. One shared idea.

They collected 594 rolls.

This wasn’t one organization pushing a campaign. It was grocery stores, a car dealer, a hardware store, specialty shops, students, law enforcement, the fair board, local media and the residents—all choosing to participate, each in their own way.

And the residents bought their toilet paper in town.

That’s what made it work.

But it was never about toilet paper.

It was about lowering the barrier and giving people an easy “yes.”
It was about making local shopping visible and fun.
And most importantly—it was about what can happen when a community decides to do something together instead of waiting to be told how.

Because collaboration doesn’t have to be complicated.

Sometimes it starts with a simple idea… and an open invitation.