Avon Lake's 2024 Shop Local Initiative Begins Today and Will Run Through Grand Prize Drawings the Week of December 16
11/08/2024 – On Friday, November 8, 2024, the City of Avon Lake kicks off its sixth annual Shop Local raffle initiative. The City has had Shop Local initiatives in November going back for more than a decade, but 2024 marks the sixth year that Shop Local has had its unique raffle format.
Here’s how it works. Avon Lake businesses participate by selling one $50 gift card to the City and donating another $50 gift card to the City. Avon Lake gives each of those participating businesses raffle tickets and a ticket box. Those businesses each give out tickets to their customers in a way that fits their operation best, and the customers put filled-out tickets in the box. Each participating business, in late November or early December, pulls a ticket from their box. That winner gets one of gift cards from that business. Then, after a month of customers submitting tickets, and after all participating businesses have drawn their individual winner, the City collects all the tickets so that grand prize winners can be drawn.
For the first four years of the Shop Local raffles, there was one grand prize winner, who won the other gift card from all participating businesses—between $1,500 and $2,000 in Avon Lake shopping and dining. Last year, based on input from participating businesses, the City split the grand prize into two grand prizes, which were organized based on type of business. This year, we are again splitting up the grand prizes, but we are doing three grand prizes based on different areas of our City. There will be Grand Prize West, Grand Prize Central, and Grand Prize East.
Avon Lake Shop Local has 51 participating businesses this year. That is up from 43 last year, and it is the largest number of participating businesses we have ever had. “We started 2024 with the goal of 50 Shop Local businesses,” says Ted Esborn, Avon Lake’s Community Development Director. “And it was tougher than we thought because we unfortunately had a few of our 2023 participants close their doors. But we enlisted Mayor, Council, and the entire administration to help us reach our goal. We were thrilled until we realized that we had given ourselves 25% more work to get all 51 businesses set up for the initiative.”
In the email to which this release is attached, there are attached the list of participants, the breakdown of the grand prizes, and a picture of tickets and ticket box. If you don’t have those, please contact Ted Esborn at the phone or email above.
