Bingles distributed by Palmer Chamber at Friday Fling

PALMER — The Great Palmer Chamber of Commerce reintroduced ‘Bingles’ as a form of gift cards for local businesses last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, and saw marked success in stimulating the local economy. In May, the Palmer Chamber received a grant from the Alaska Chamber to promote vaccinations in conjunction with the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services’ “sleeves up for summer” campaign. In early June, the Palmer City Council voted 4-3 to approve AM 21-037, approving a $30,000 passthrough grant from DHSS to the Palmer Chamber, which is a separate program from the vaccinations provided at Friday Flings.

“The grant we received from the Alaska Chamber and the one that the City intends to pass through to us come from different funding sources and have different assurances and requirements. The Alaska Chamber grant had to be used for vaccination efforts and it looks like the one from the City has a little more flexibility, which will allow us to reach more people and get those bingles into more hands, which is our goal. We want to see our business community in Palmer thrive and the combined grant totals will have a substantial impact for our businesses,” said Palmer Chamber Executive Director Ailis Vann.

While the two programs are similar, they are separate. Bingles were revitalized last year and printed locally at Silvertip Design as an homage to a Colony-era form of Federal currency. The bingles were accepted at 28 Palmer businesses last year during Small Business Saturday and now are accepted at 36 different local businesses.

“We wanted to put as much of that money into the community as possible, so we decided to offer bingles to folks that chose to get vaccinated at the ongoing vaccination clinics at Friday Fling. Mat-Su Public Health runs the clinics and offers the bingles to anyone that gets vaccinated. It has been a great partnership with MSPH. The bingles are a direct link to economic impact in Palmer and we couldn’t think of a better way to utilize that grant,” said Vann.

The Palmer Council passed AM 21-037 in early June, but have not yet implemented the program. Discussion from the council on the legality of offering bingles prompted City Manager John Moosey to rethink the plan to implement the $30,000 from DHSS.

“We were looking at the opportunity to use them to drive business to Palmer with this vaccination push by the state. We are no longer doing that. We are looking at how we can still use the bingles and not tie them to vaccinations and tie them more for providing information about options and driving peoples interest to the state information they provide on vaccinations and covid,” said Moosey.

While the Palmer Chamber has been issuing bingles at Friday Flings, the program is separate from the passthrough grant accepted by the council in June.

“Our money is in addition to that and we’ve not done anything with that yet. We’ve not received the money for the bingle program. I did sign an agreement but haven’t pushed forward on that yet,” said Moosey.