Columbia County, OR- During the months of November & December, locals were encouraged and rewarded for shopping at participating businesses with a “Spirit Card.” Keep It Local Columbia County wanted to promote more local shopping especially during the holiday so they created a countywide “Catch the Holiday Spirit Campaign” to help connect all five communities in Columbia County. This marketing campaign was modeled off a successful six-year program from the Clatskanie Chamber. The participating businesses handed out “Spirit Cards” to their customers with purchase and checked off one box for every $10.00 spent with that merchant. A “Spirit Card” is full when 20 boxes are marked a retail value of $200.00. A completed card gave you once chance to win as a drawing was held in each city for a minimum of (3) $50.00 Gift Cards on Dec 29th. Two Grand Prize winners were drawn from all the turned in cards for the Countywide Drawing January 5th, 2018.
The 2nd year campaign had 72 businesses handing out “Spirit Cards” versus only 42 the year before. A total of 232 Spirit Cards were turned in complete with the following from each city Scappoose at 32, Vernonia 21, St Helens 67, Rainier 12 & Clatskanie 100. The value of those 232 turned in cards represents a low number of tracked dollars spent locally at a minimum of $46,400. The prior year only 130 were turned in at a value of $26,000.
Natasha Parvey, Director for Keep It Local Columbia County stated, “As a committee, we are thrilled with the community and business participation. We consider this campaign a huge success. We understand that many people have “Spirit Cards” that were not turned in because they weren’t complete or they missed the deadline. We printed up 2,000 cards to be given away. The amount turned in represents only 11 % of total cards given out which is a low number. It’s safe to assume more people picked up those cards when they were in the local stores than just the 232 turned in. This is exciting. We are looking forward to doing it again next year. ”
Many of the prize drawings were recorded on a video posted to FB or live on Facebook at our program sponsor locations at Wauna Federal Credit Union across Columbia County. To view the winners, go to Keep It Local Columbia County Facebook Page. We also had other companies like St Helens Community Credit Union, Windermere Real Estate & All About Pets, LLC. Discounts & Deals, Clatskanie donate prizes to equal over $1,550.00 worth of prizes to a total of 26 people in Columbia County. Our Grand Prize winners both received $150.00 worth of gift certificates, Congratulations to Carla Hess & Linda Parr both from Clatskanie, OR.
We want to thank all our businesses who participated and shoppers who choose to spend there dollars in their local community. #catchtheholidayspiritcc #shopcolumbiacounty #shopsmall #supportlocal #hereincc #keepitlocalcc #holidaygifts #madeincc
