#EvenMoreStrathmore contest underway

By Adelle Ellis, Times Reporter

For the month of February when you shop locally and show off your support for and purchases from local businesses through using the #EvenMoreStrathmore on social media posts, you could be entered for a chance to win one of three gift baskets as part of the Even More Strathmore initiative by the Town of Strathmore.
Economic development has been a main priority for the current town council and the idea for more shop local initiatives stemmed from business feedback in late 2019.
Although shop local campaigns are not new to Strathmore, this is the first time the town will be trying an online social media approach to get the word out.
“We developed a high-impact campaign that relies on community support to really take off,” said Ty Tomasta, communications ambassador with the Town of Strathmore. “This is a three-pronged campaign: we’re distributing about 300 decals for businesses to display in their storefronts … we’re also advertising in local media to make sure we’re building awareness of the campaign, (and) the social media contest is the third piece of the plan by encouraging customers to share their stories about Strathmore’s businesses.”
A presentation about the Even More Strathmore initiative was made during the Jan. 15 committee of the whole meeting and since then, town staff has been handing out decals for local stores to display in their windows.
There are four different decals, printed locally by The Phoenix Signs & Graphics, with messages that you can find on store windows: service business, small business, local employment and business community decals, depending on which message each individual store most identifies with.
Strathmore is home to over 500 businesses and the town hopes the Even More Strathmore initiative will help residents to discover and explore all of them.
For the contest, which has three grand prizes of gift baskets valued at $250 each worth of local product, an unlimited amount of entries can be gained by snapping a picture of your local purchase, tweeting about a great deal, or writing a quick message describing great service you have received and posting to either Instagram, Facebook or Twitter and using the #EvenMoreStrathmore in your post. Every time you post to one of those three social media sites with the hashtag, you will be entered into the contest.
The Even More Strathmore contest will run until 11:59 p.m. Feb. 29 and the winners will be chosen at random and announced March 2. Businesses are encouraged to display the decals in their windows until May.
“Our goal for Strathmore’s business community is to increase traffic to their shops, but there’s an important goal for all of Strathmore. We want residents to know how important it is to support our businesses,” said Tomasta, who added that the town aims to achieve long-term support for Strathmore’s business community.