Merrittonians are invited to snap a photo for the chance to snap up a variety of gift cards for local businesses in the Merritt and District Chamber of Commerce 2022 Photo Contest. The contest is open to both locals and visitors who capture photos that they feel represent Merritt and the Nicola Valley in a number of categories.

This year’s categories for the photo contest include:

  • Nature & Outdoors,
  • Sports & Recreation,
  • Food & Festivity,
  • Downtown & Shopping.

The grand prize for each category is $300 worth of gift certificates for local businesses, with first and second place prizes of $100 and $50 of the same certificates also up for grabs. The Chamber recently identified a lack of local advertising material, used for promoting the community, and hopes to incentivize locals to submit their photos.

“In the last year we’ve been working on a lot of different projects, and we’ve been updating a lot of our marketing materials, so we were finding that we just didn’t have anything other than older and stock photos,” said Margaret Hohner, chair of the Merritt and District Chamber of Commerce.

“They just weren’t the greatest and most recent pictures of the Nicola Valley and the local businesses. We thought a photo contest would be a great way to engage the community and increase our presence, so that people are more aware of the Chamber and that we’re here and promoting businesses.”

Over 200 people have entered the contest, submitting photos for a chance at a prize. All entries may be used in future Chamber promotional materials, but the winning photos will be featured and promoted. Both locals and visitors to the Nicola Valley are welcomed and encouraged to submit their photos.

The Chamber says reaction from local businesses to the contest has been just as good, with their membership sharing positive feedback and displaying posters to promote the contest. While the contest is similar to the City of Merritt’s annual photo contest, it varies in the variety of categories and copyright ownership rules.

“Merritt is a gorgeous place. I think the City has had a photo contest yearly, it’s a little different from ours. In our contest, you keep the rights to your photo, we just use it for promotion and marketing material. The City usually takes the rights, and that’s understandable, they’re a larger organization,” said Zach Hardy, community engagement coordinator for the Chamber.

The Merritt and District Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit organization that provides support to local businesses in the form of advocacy to the City of Merritt, hosting workshops and engagement events, and health benefit plans for members. The Chamber recently elected a new board, and is actively engaging members to set its vision and pace for the upcoming year.
Hohner, who is new to both her Chair position and the community, is excited about the new contest itself, and the many opportunities for business engagement and development she sees in Merritt and the Nicola Valley. She urges all Merrittonians, business owners or not, to engage with their local Chamber.

“Not just business owners, but anyone, if you’ve got some positive actions that you think we should look at trying to advocate for, we’re happy to look at that and see what we can do to make Merritt a better place for business,” added Hohner.

“I’m really excited to see downtown, shopping, and festival pictures that really demonstrate the good vibe that we’ve got going in this town. I’m fairly new to Merritt, I don’t have a lot of history, but I moved here because I like it. I love our town and I love that we’ve got so much here for a town this size. Promoting our City and our downtown is going to be very exciting.”

To enter the photo contest, or for more information on the Merritt and District Chamber of Commerce, visit www.merrittchamber.com.