Pam Brown of A.I.M. Cleaning Services hands her business information to Bryant neighborhood resident Sherrie Turner during the The Buy Bryant Kickoff Fair at the Bryant Community Center in Ann Arbor on Saturday.

Angela Cesere | AnnArbor.com

Whether it's flooding or foreclosures, Ann Arbor's Bryant neighborhood has been hit hard in 2010.

Still, on Saturday afternoon the community was resolute when it came together for the first "Buy Bryant" community fair.

With a range of services on display from acupuncture to hair care to child care, the fair was an extension of the Buy Bryant guides that have been sent to the neighborhood near Bryant Elementary School.

The goal: To get residents of the homes off Champagne and Hemlock and their multiple cul-de-sacs just northeast of Stone School and Ellsworth to embrace a buy-local movement that targets the immediate neighborhood.

"Buy Bryant" effort was conceptualized more than a year ago to keep the neighborhood's already-scarce dollars flowing within the community, said Derrick Miller, director of the Bryant Community Center, which hosted the fair.

"When you go to Wal Mart, very little of the money you spend gets invested back into the community - it goes off elsewhere," Miller said. "But if we can get those dollars flowing within the community a few times before they leave, that actually helps the people that you know, that you live with."

Stephen Kubacki has called the Bryant neighborhood home since 2006. The Eastern Michigan University English student had received mailers from the Buy Bryant campaign and got to thinking about what service he would offer if listed in the bulletin. Soon he settled on helping people craft resumes.

The aspiring novelist wants to help his neighbors put together a cover letter/resume/reference letter package designed to ensure serious consideration and, ideally, a job interview.

"If I can put someone in position to advance themselves and make a few dollars while doing it, why not?" he said. Kubacki has lived in the Bryant neighborhood since 2006. He chose the area because it was the only part of town he could afford at the time.

 "It's a little gritty, sometimes," Kubacki said of his neighborhood, which has many low-income residents. But years later, he's still not inclined to leave.

Come April 2011, quiltmaker Marla Blackwell will have lived in the Bryant neighborhood for 40 years. Now a senior citizen on a fixed income, Blackwell got into quiltmaking about a decade ago, more as a hobby than anything. She's been able to make some money from her quilts the last few years, and hopes that her neighbors are receptive.

Toni "TDub" Wells, owner of TDub Entertainment, a party and event-planning service, was at the fair on Saturday. Wells joined a number of service providers in expressing surprise in both the range and the amount of talent onsite.

"There's a lot of smart people in this area," Wells said, "but it's a matter of us finding ways to work together and grow together."

Tony Tsai, treasurer for the Community Action Network (CAN) and a business lecturer at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, learned early into his first foray into non-profit work that people don't like being "helped."

"We figured, rather than giving help in an external way, why connect people with the talented people that live in their own neighborhood, and build from there?" Tsai said.

The center plans to facilitate a feedback mechanism so that any quality issues can be addressed and, if chronic, eliminated. As for how regularly Buy Bryant fairs will occur, Miller said that that will be determined in debriefing sessions with CAN leadership and neighborhood service providers.

Ann Arbor owns the Bryant center, but contracts with the CAN to run Bryant and three other community centers in town. CAN provided business cards to the service-providers on site.

"If nothing else, they'll come away with that," Miller said. "But we're hoping this is only the start for a lot of people." Saturday's event was for the neighborhood, but Miller sees the potential to spotlight Bryant's service-providers to the entire city.

Miller said an eventual goal is to find sponsors to back a "Bryant Bucks" local currency program that would institutionalize the buy-local effort and extend its benefits to residents who lack the money to pay and the skills to barter.

"Not everyone can afford every service that's offered out here," Miller said. "When that happens, we want to be able to step in with the Bryant Bucks and make sure people are getting what they need."

One consequence of the Buy Bryant program is that it has taken a few dreamers away from the comforts of the couch and into the world of business.

Kubacki was one service-provider inspired to entrepreneurship by the Buy Bryant fair.

"Seeing the print bulletins come around is one thing, but when I saw that there was going to be an actual fair," Kubacki recalled, "that was the motivation I needed to get off my butt and actually make something happen."

James David Dickson can be reached at JamesDickson@AnnArbor.com.