New shopping campaign ties to St. Ignatius success

The Colfax Chamber of Commerce will soon be unveiling a “Shop Local” campaign for Colfax, said Valoree Gregory, Colfax's Unified Executive Director.

According to the Explore Colfax website, the purpose of the campaign is “dedicated to supporting and preserving sustainable business, economy and entrepreneurship in Whitman County.”

The shop local campaign will be marked by stickers which will appear in the windows of businesses which are Chamber members, Gregory said.

“We should be getting our stickers in by next week,” Gregory said on Tuesday. “They shipped today.”

The slogan on the stickers appears on a picture of the St. Ignatius Hospital building and reads, “Ghost towns happen when you don't shop local.”

“We thought we would just continue to play off St. Ignatius,” explained Gregory, adding that surrounding communities such as Pullman have shop local campaigns.

Gregory said that the Passsports to Colfax which were done in late November and early December spurred the shop local campaign, as those passports got more people into local businesses, which supported the local economy.

“When we did the passports, that just leads into the shop local campaign,” she said. “We want to do fun things that make people aware of the businesses in town and get them to shop locally.”

Gregory said that something similar to the passports will likely be done every quarter, with the upcoming campaign to be March Madness scratch tickets beginning March 1.

“If you match up three basketballs, you can be entered to win in a drawing,” she said. “We are just trying to do fun things to get people to shop in Colfax.”

Gregory said she has heard excitement about the shop local campaign.

“Everybody's excited about the stickers because it was creative,” she said.

Gregory also said the “fun events” and the stickers will be able to show the community the Chamber's activity in the community.

“It will show them that we are actually doing something,” she said.

She also added that she thinks the stickers will be a good way to get new Chamber members, as the stickers will be distributed to just the businesses which are Chamber members.

“It will be a way for us to go around and get new members,” she said, also noting that some of the Chamber members are in Spokane and Pullman.

“I'm mailing to them, too!” Gregory said. “You put those stickers in your window for Colfax!”