Christmas is here! As I write this article, I’m amazed at how quickly the time has passed this year. Most recently, our Shop Lake Gaston First for the Holidays contest began first by chugging along, as people became familiar with the idea, then moved full-steam ahead until it drew to a close on December 19.
I was joined by my partners and friends of the Lake Gaston Gazette-Observer, as well as Shop Lake Gaston First supporters Nina Angle of Anglewood Kitchens & Design and Ann Morgan of Food Lion, on December 19 at 4:30 p.m. at the Gazette office to combine all of the entries from the six contest locations into one large box that we shook and tossed and blew the entry forms around with a hair dryer to make certain they were all mixed up. I want to thank the five locations (in addition to the Chamber) that were Shop Lake Gaston First contest entry locations: A Bird’s Eye View (Littleton), Lake Gaston Flower Shop (Gasburg), Lake Gaston Gazette-Observer (Littleton), Martin Exterminating (Roanoke Rapids) and Sanders Super Stop (Valentines).
We had a wonderful time taking turns reaching into the box to draw out the names of the winners! We gave away a variety of prizes donated by Lake Gaston Regional Chamber members that totaled nearly $2,000! I need to say a special thank you to all those Chamber members who donated gifts: ACE Hardware of Lake Gaston, American Synthetics, Anglewood Kitchens & Design, Doug & Marcia Kerr of Re/Max on the Lake, Food Lion, Healing Kneads, Lake Gaston Flower Shop, Lake Gaston Gazette-Observer, Lakeland Theatre Company, Lake Life Clothing Company, Mary Sherwood Lake Living, Pea Hill Creek Café, Rendezvous Restaurant, Sarah Bolduc, Susan C. Bersch CPA, Sylvan Heights Bird Park, Tammy’s Place, The Pointe at Lake Gaston, US Coast Guard Auxiliary, Wagn’ Tails on the Lake, WatersView Restaurant, and Wildwood Nursery & Garden Center.
Now, I need to thank all those Lake Gaston regional residents who submitted receipts and entered the Shop Lake Gaston First for the Holidays contest. Each of these contest entries represented $100. Believe it or not, the dollar figure spent in the Lake Gaston region just from Nov. 1-Dec. 18 represented by only these contest entries was an amazing $87,100! Remember, that we also limited entries for single big ticket items to 10 entries, which means there would have been even more. Think about if everyone around the Lake Gaston region had participated! Those figures would have been overwhelming!
What I loved especially was that our contest did not just focus on holiday shopping, even though it took place around the holiday season. This contest was about just going about your day-to-day business, while being mindful of shopping locally. I loved seeing all of the grocery receipts from Food Lion, receipts from dining out at restaurants, gas receipts, electric bills, phone bills, flooring installation, appliances, even some dental work and a teeth cleaning from one of our member dentist offices!
The whole point of the Shop Lake Gaston First for the Holidays contest was to help our region begin to understand the tip of the ice burg of the huge impact of shopping local. I am so proud of how the contest turned out this first year and what a wonderful kickoff this contest was to our campaign in 2014 of Shop Lake Gaston First. There will be some announcements in next week’s Chamber Talk about how this campaign is going to progress from this point forward.
We are so much stronger when we support one another, by supporting our regional businesses, banding together as a Chamber of Commerce and keeping our dollars local, which in turn keeps and creates jobs in our area, provides funding for our churches, non-profits and schools, and protects and improves our communities. Especially at this season, the Lake Gaston Regional Chamber of Commerce is proud to be a unifying voice for the Lake Gaston region, and we look forward to the New Year of continued and new partnerships in this effort.
