The Petoskey Chamber of Commerce is hoping to stimulate their local economy this holiday season and they've gotten a boost this early December.
Community Cash is a program in which people can purchase gift certificates to local businesses.
The Petoskey Chamber of Commerce said the Odawa Casino Resort recently purchased $30,000 in Community Cash to give to its employees as holiday bonuses.
Carlin Smith is the president of the Petoskey Regional Chamber of Commerce.
He says this is a perfect example of why the Community Cash program was implemented and he hopes to see more of it.
"The hope is that these employees will get the community cash as their employee bonuses and that this cash will be spent locally at Petoskey area businesses. Probably for some Christmas shopping; who knows" said Smith.
Smith said a number of small businesses in the Petoskey area have given their employees Community Cash as holiday bonuses.
He says the purchase will do great things for the community economically.
"You know there's a rule of thumb in economic development that each dollar spends seven times in a community. So it stands to reason that the $30,000 will spend from business to business in the community" said Smith.
The chamber was unable to give any numbers on how overall community cash sales are doing but Smith said sales this holiday have "been brisk".