By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Ortonville-Area businesses have something to cheer about following this past holiday season.
On Nov. 30, Ortonville hosted their Small Business Saturday event in conjunction with hundreds of communities in a county-wide program. A total of 106 of the 2,066 county-wide entries registered during the ShopTextWin contest were from Ortonville. The tally of customers participating lifted the village to seventh across the county for number of entries on that day.
“While the holiday shopping season is behind us, it is important to recognize how this community, time and time again, rallies around an event, an activity, our downtown,” said DDA Executive Director Matt Jenkins. “The DDA uses the charge -Shop Small, Shop Local, Shop Ortonville- and our community puts it into practice, the impact is incredible.”
Small Business Saturday was created by American Express in 2010 as a way to support local retailers and small commerce shops. The idea continued and today the event is in more than 7,500 communities nationwide. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses comprise 99.9 percent of all U.S Businesses and employ 47 percent of all Americans.
During the ShopTextWin contest, three shoppers in Oakland County would win one of three prizes in a random drawing, and this year the grand $5,000 prize went to a shopper who made her purchase at It’s the Little Things here in downtown Ortonville. The DDA also handed out five prizes in partnership with Oakland County in the form of Downtown Dollars, and winners shopped at Dollar Tree, Pet Supplies Plus, Mabelena Quilting Supplies and Hamilton’s of Ortonville.