Chamber receives federal grant
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The Strathmore Wheatland Chamber of Commerce (SWCC) will be receiving $15,680 of federal shop local funding, to be utilized for expanding the chamber’s efforts to encourage patronage of community businesses.
Hayley Poirier explained the grant is meant to help stimulate local businesses and help encourage residents to shop local.
“It was all related to the idea that the Canadian government wanted to give money to the chambers of commerce who had a great game plan, all related to putting businesses back in business,” she said. “They (the government) were not dictating how they wanted us to use the money other than they wanted it to stimulate business.”
The funding will be used to support businesses in Wheatland County and the Town of Strathmore. The Chamber has created a campaign they are calling, TOUR564 to brand their idea.
“We started a shopping tote campaign at Strathmore Stampede … and the idea behind this is another way of getting people into businesses,” said Poirier.
Participating with the totes is formatted like a weekly contest, for which people can post photos to social media using certain hashtags to get in on.
Running through the month of August, the contest includes weekly winners of $100 gift cards and a grand prize winner at the end of the month who will take home $500 for submitting the most photos over the course of the contest.
“It kind of spurs on the idea that businesses are open again and [people] haven’t been to that store for a long time, or … didn’t know [where] that business is located,” said Poirier. “The whole idea of the tour is that we were playing off of Route 66, and if people are going out for a drive, there’s points of interest along the way … why not make our businesses as the points of attraction for people.”
A second use of the grant funding, she added, was to hire local videographer, Rocket Grid, to produce infomercial-type adverts for businesses wishing to participate.
“We hired a videographer, [who] is going to be going out into the community, contacting all of our members and will be creating 20 to 30-second infomercials … for learning a little about the businesses,” explained Poirier.
She estimated roughly 50 to 60 per cent of member businesses will take part in creating infomercials to have shared online.
“People want to see what your business looks like, what you will look like, what you’re doing, and so we really believe it’ll have a huge impact.”
Another round of grant funding is currently being applied for by the chamber, though there has yet to be confirmation of whether the application was successful.