In April 2021, the Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce created the Ashland Shop Local Gift Card to help support 47 local businesses in the county.

Amy Daubenspeck, director of operations for the Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce is proud to say this gift card is much easier to use than their previous gift certificate program, Chamber Cash.

“It was not as user-friendly for the merchants, the new gift card is better for everyone involved,” Daubenspeck said.

Although this program has been around for almost a year, Daubenspeck is wanting to educate the community more about the certificate. The Chamber of Commerce is hoping to gain more attention to it through a group of five students at Ashland University in a public relations campaign class.

Senior Public Relations and Strategic Communication major, Zachary Kistler, explained his group’s role in promoting the Ashland Shop Local Gift Card for their class project this spring semester.

“Our purpose is to present them with new ideas, reach the students and the parents of the students at Ashland University, as well as work with the businesses,” Kistler said.

The group of students plan to help the program by creating graphics to post by the register at each business to help bring awareness to the certificate and to make testimonials of businesses who have had success with the gift card to enhance the importance of shopping local to the community.

Daubenspeck said the hope is the gift card will expand to see new horizons by encouraging businesses to use them as incentives, as well as educating parents of Ashland University students about the certificate to possibly purchase for their child, despite being a distance away.

“College kids love to shop,” Kistler said. “There are quite a few students here that don’t go home often, or live far from home. It’s a great gift to give to your student and they can go to 47 different places with it.”

$5-$100 can be loaded onto each Ashland Shop Local Gift Card. To purchase or for more information, visit https://app.yiftee.com/gift-card/ashland–oh-ashland. The certificate can be printed, emailed or texted to the recipient.

“The beauty of this gift card is you can do anything from shopping for your pet at a pet store, to getting an oil change, to buying a computer and anything in between,’’ Daubenspeck said.