The Crookston Area Chamber of Commerce and Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) held a month-long shop local incentive program amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The result was the Crookston community came out in full force in support of local businesses.
Tuesday morning on Valley Talk, Chamber Executive Director Terrie Heggie announced the final numbers, including the winner who guessed the “closest” amount of receipts submitted. The submitted receipt grand total was $214,300.17. “That is amazing, and that is the receipts that were turned in. Imagine all the other spending that was going on through this whole COVID situation. This is just absolutely phenomenal,” said Crookston Chamber of Commerce’s Terri Heggie. “We’re turning around now and sending out those Chamber Bucks. There is $15,880 in Chamber Bucks going back out to the community members that took part in this.”
There was a contest on the Crookston Chamber Facebook page to see who could guess the closest total of all the receipts that came in. “We had 92 people guess, 87 on our Facebook page, and a few write it on their envelopes as well,” said Heggie. “Kaysie Mix was the closest to the dollar amount. Her guess was $101,739.66.”
Not only was more than $214,000 spent locally last month, but the $15,880 in Chamber Bucks will also be spent at local businesses, which is one of the benefits of a chamber membership said, Heggie. “If you are a Chamber member out there, this will come back into your business,” said Heggie. “Without our chamber members, we would not be able to provide these kinds of incentive programs. So, we appreciate all of our chamber members year after year that continues to support the chamber. It shows that we embrace the community and want our community to be resilient and still standing after this COVID crisis is over.”
Heggie said neither she nor CHEDA Executive Director Craig Hoiseth anticipated such a booming response. “I thought $80,000,” said Heggie. “And then I was like,…and we surpassed that so quickly. That’s when I had to keep my hat on. I didn’t want to leak out where we were at, at all. I had no idea at the beginning of this, and I’m quite sure Craig Hoiseth would say the same thing. We had no idea it would surpass the numbers that it did.”
Receipts from more than 400 individuals or families were received during the program, according to Heggie. “The majority of them were $500 or more,” said Heggie. “I can see we easily received over 400 pieces – envelopes or emails with receipts. This far surpassed any amount we thought was going to be generated in receipts and turned in. We are blown away by the community support around not only this incentive but in keeping those dollars local.”
Crookston’s shop local incentive program amid the COVID-19 crisis has also drawn plenty of attention outside of the local area, and Heggie said she’s sure it will be promoted on many levels throughout the state. “We have put out several posts on Facebook about this promotion, and it has been seen far and wide,” said Heggie. “It has expanded to outside our area. We have a local person who works at the Minnesota Chamber Office. He grew up here, and now he serves the Minnesota Chamber in a wonderful capacity, that’s Ben Nicholas. He has been watching, sent many encouraging messages about this program, and we have a phone call this afternoon so he can hear the numbers and how wonderful this was. I’m sure this will be promoted on many different levels because it was so successful.”
The Crookston community undoubtedly succeeded in growing stronger together through the COVID-19 pandemic with their support of local businesses.
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