A Michigan community stepped up to the plate when its members bought $2,000 in gift cards to support the Kalamazoo Downtown Partnership.
Kalamazoo Downtown Partnership President Andrew Haan said all the gift cards were sold as of Sunday after the organization encouraged the community to support local businesses affected by the coronavirus lockdown, WWMT reported.
The partnership launched a gift card stimulus program, allowing community members to buy $25 gift cards to use in the future. The downtown partnership also said it would match an additional $10 per gift card purchased.
Haan said helping these businesses when they need it the most will help the local economy in the long run.
“If we can help businesses get through this stuff, through some lean times and not be catastrophic, that makes it a heck of a lot easier to recover more quickly on the back end of this,” he said.
Haan said their organization’s goal was to sell 1,000 gift cards. When they sold out, they raised their target to another 1,000. After all the gift cards sold out, he said the sales raised $70,000 for businesses in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan, and that they were looking for additional ways to keep supporting local businesses.