A fantastic local shopping opportunity awaits one lucky individual this holiday season in the Columbia Valley. The valley’s heritage newspaper, The Valley Echo, is offering a $1,500 Christmas Shopping Spree to the winner of a Shop Local contest that starts on Saturday, November 23rd during Invermere’s annual Light Up festival.

During Light Up, look for ballot boxes at participating businesses bearing both The Valley Echo and the Columbia Valley Pioneer logos. Ballots will be handed out at the discretion of store staff (typically in exchange for purchases and/or serious inquiries) to shoppers 18 years or older. Shoppers are then invited to complete their ballot, which will be their entry into the Christmas Shopping Spree contest. The more you shop local during Light Up, the more ballots you will receive; the more ballots you receive, the better your odds of winning the $1,500 Christmas Shopping Spree grand prize!

And it doesn’t stop there. A complete list of all the contest’s participating businesses will appear in the centre spread of The Valley Echo for four consecutive weeks starting on Wednesday, November 27th through to Wednesday, December 18th, giving serious local shoppers with their eye on the $1,500 prize a competitive advantage. For these four weeks, it will be a local shopping free-for-all with no limit on the number of ballots any one individual can enter.

Then, on the afternoon of Thursday, December 19th, a draw will determine the Christmas Shopping Spree contest winner, who will have two days to scout out what they want to buy at participating business before they are personally escorted on a one-hour Christmas Shopping Spree (a stopwatch will measure store time, not travel time) by a Valley Echo/Pioneer staff

member on Saturday, December 21st. The contest winner will be able to spend a maximum of $250 at a minimum of six participating businesses during their whirlwind Christmas Shopping Spree, which will be followed by a taste of celebrity status after their photo appears in the paper…

So get your Christmas lists ready to shop local this holiday season for a chance to support your local business community and win big!