With a new program, the Burke County Chamber of Commerce hopes to get people out and about in their locally owned businesses this month. The chamber will distribute passports with each of the 14 participating businesses listed, as well as their addresses and hours of operation, at their office on the corner of South Green and East Meeting streets, according to Tonia Stephenson, CEO of the chamber.
Passport holders will be able to get their passports stamped by participating businesses from Monday through August 27.
Passports must be stamped and returned to the chamber’s office by August 29 to be entered into a drawing on August 31. Passports must have at least five stamps in order to be accepted. Passports with ten stamps will receive two entries, while passports with all fourteen stamps will receive three entries.
“(The) whole goal is to show our local shops and show them off to the community, and give people a reason to go into places that maybe they otherwise wouldn’t go into,” Stephenson said. “At the chamber, we support businesses of all sizes throughout the county, but we know what keeps the community strong is the local businesses, and especially our small businesses. “Without our local businesses, our downtown wouldn’t be thriving, and our economy wouldn’t thrive. We want to make sure that we continue to support our local business owners and their companies so that we can keep them here and help them continue to grow.”
The following companies are taking part in the passports event:
- The Levee Brewery & Pub in Valdese
- Craft’d
- Dragonfly Apothecary & Artisan Market
- Fonta Flora Brewery
- Food Matters Market & Café
- M&M Greenhouse
- MeMe’s
- Professor Herb’s Herbal Solutions
- Catawba Brewing Co.
- Renewed Nutrition
- Silver Creek Golf Club
- The Grind Café
- The Olive of Morganton
- The Town Tavern, Morganton
Passports can be picked up at the chamber’s office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday.
source :thenewsherald
