Daily News

Curran & Keegan Leads Amherst Area Chamber Gift Card Holiday Match

HADLEY — Curran & Keegan Financial of Hadley has returned as the lead sponsor of the 2022 Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce’s Holiday Gift Card Match with a $2,500 investment in the Amherst Area Gift Card program. Encharter Insurance, bankESB, and the Amherst Business Improvement District are joining in with their support to make this year’s $6,000 Holiday Gift Card match a reality, creating a $12,000 direct reinvestment in local businesses.

“If we have learned nothing else over the past couple of years, community matters,” said Molly Keegan, CPA and co-owner of Curran & Keegan. “We are happy to play a part in encouraging everyone to support their friends and neighbors by keeping holiday shopping local.”

Claudia Pazmany, the chamber’s executive director, added that “we are thrilled that Curran & Keegan could return this year to lead the match which inspired other partners to join in. They all understand the value of small businesses and their positive social and economic impact in our communities … supporting our small businesses contributes to our local economy, creates jobs, and preserves our community. They know how easy it is to get distracted and shop online at the big-box stores, so they are helping you choose local.”

Curran & Keegan demonstrated its support of small business as a leader in supporting the Amherst Area Chamber’s Winter Pivot Micro-Grant program at the beginning of last year. Now it is building on that commitment to support the local economy’s growth out of this pandemic two years in a row.

The match enables the Amherst Area Gift Card program to sell 240 $50 gift cards for $26 each ($1 service charge per card). The match will be sold exclusively at the Visitor Information Center at 35 South Pleasant St. in Amherst starting at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 1, and the typical office hours are weekdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturdays, 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Only two gift cards will be sold per person or per family. Sales will be in-person only on a first-come, first-served basis, and there will be no advance sales.

The launch of this year’s Holiday Amherst Area Gift Card match day on Dec. 1 kicks off Amherst-wide holiday events focused on supporting local, including A Very Merry Maple Lighting on Friday, Dec. 2 beginning at 3 p.m. at the North Common in downtown Amherst; Merry Day, with 20% off at participating restaurants and retail stores, on Saturday, Dec. 3; and a Sip & Shop Stroll on Thursday, Dec. 15.