It’s not too late to get in on the Lacombe & District Chamber of Commerce 2022 Passport to Christmas program which wraps up on Christmas Eve.
“It’s really fantastic,” said Jeff Hanger, the Chamber’s executive director. “I think that we are distributing more passports than we ever have before - they continue to be printed,” he said.
The way it works is that for every $10 spent at a participating business, the customer receives a stamp on their passport.
Each passport can be dropped off at draw boxes at the participating businesses to be entered in draws for ‘Lacombe and District Shopping Bucks’.
Lacombe Bucks can then be spent at any of the vendors in the program, and there are 20,000 passports printed up each year.
The program kicked off Nov. 12 and runs through to Dec. 24, and prizes will be drawn at Sunny 94 after 2 p.m. on Jan. 3.
The grand prize is $3,000 in Lacombe and District Shopping Bucks, which can only be used in the participating businesses.
The second prize is $1,500 in Lacombe and District Shopping Bucks and the third prize lands you $1,000 in Lacombe and District Shopping Bucks.
And even if you only partly fill up your passport, you aren’t out of the running for a prize - you could be eligible to win $500 in Lacombe and District Shopping Bucks.
The Chamber has also had 10 business pop-up draws during the six-week program as well for $100 in Lacombe and District Shopping Bucks. Every participating business has a draw box, so the owner draws out a passport. That person then wins the $100.
Their name is then put back into the draw box for the big prizes down the road.
Overall, about 90 businesses signed on to take part this year, and the Chamber also received sponsorship support from Sunny 94, Echo Lacombe, and Strand360.
Another highlight of this year’s campaign was ‘double stamp night’ during ‘Light Up the Night’ late-night shopping on Nov. 24.
During the 2021 event, Passport to Christmas confirmed that $3,390,300 was spent at the participating businesses.
Meanwhile, feedback about the program is always extremely positive, said Hanger, adding that this year has also seen a non-profit win $100 for the first time - the Broom Tree Foundation.
“People are really loving it - the amount of local shopping that we’ve got going on is just incredible.”
Visit www.lacombechamber.ca for more information about Passport to Christmas, or find them on Facebook for the latest updates.