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Basket Life connects new residents with local businesses

Heislers fill baskets with goods, information from Clay County

By Bruce Hope bruce@opcfla.com
Posted 8/26/20

MIDDLEBURG – “Welcome to the neighborhood!” That’s the greeting that new homeowners receive from local photographer Dana Heisler and her husband Chris, owners of Basket Life, give to new …

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Basket Life connects new residents with local businesses

Heislers fill baskets with goods, information from Clay County


Posted

MIDDLEBURG – “Welcome to the neighborhood!” That’s the greeting that new homeowners receive from local photographer Dana Heisler and her husband Chris, owners of Basket Life, give to new members of the community.

Basket Life is a new company, currently based out of the Heisler’s Middleburg home. They prepare welcome baskets for the new residents and fill them with useful information from local businesses.

“Our slogan is: ‘Connecting People One Basket At A Time,’” said Heisler. “And our goal is to deliver sponsored baskets to new homeowners. We do that because we want to help businesses.”

Businesses in the area pay Basket Life to have their information, or a small gift placed into baskets and delivered to the new homeowners. These aren’t custom gift baskets.

“We put area quality businesses in the basket. Their goal is to help new homeowners connect,” she said. “When you move and need a painter, or you need a doctor, or a new lawn guy, or even a new CPA because you don’t want to work with your CPA remotely, those kinds of businesses will be in the basket.”

Those, among others, are the type of businesses that are included in the baskets. Heisler says gyms also love being included in the baskets. She also provides information from the Clay Chamber of Commerce, the tourism department, and even churches. Also included is a copy of the Clay Today newspaper.

“The whole idea is to welcome the new homeowner,” she said.

Businesses pay to be a part of the baskets in the form of advertising. Nonprofits, however, such as the churches, don’t. The contents of the baskets also vary by zip code.

The Heislers are concerned about the general lack of connections among people in different communities.

“We knew, and we saw what was happening in our community and lots of communities,” said Heisler. “The lack of connections is happening all over the place. What I loved about this is that it helps with those connections.”

“Our whole mindset from the beginning in whatever businesses we’ve done, is to be focused on helping people out, and to be business focused in helping other businesses and helping the community,” said Chris Heisler. “That’s what it’s all about for us, and doing so, now we feel like we’ve found a way to -especially in these times- to help businesses reconnect with people with whom they would have lost touch otherwise, and a neat way to do that is with these welcome baskets.”

The baskets are usually delivered within 30 days of the new resident’s move in.

The Heislers already have lots of business connections, many of them gained through Dana’s photography work. Also, they attend area networking events.

Basket Life is an innovative approach to connecting, expanding and vetting the community for the residents and businesses. The company is seeing success so far.

Their first delivery took place Saturday; they packed more than 100 baskets.

With Basket Life, new residents in the area have one leg up when it comes to getting comfortably assimilated.