More than a million bucks!

Ken Johnston

It really pays to shop in Rainy River!
More than a million Rainy River Bucks were spent on Canada Day in Rainy River!
The culmination of about six weeks of shopping in Rainy River that included a bonus every time a consumer spent $10 in real money ended on Friday when the Chamber auctioned off merchandise for Rainy River Bucks.
For every $10 in real money they spent at participating businesses they received 100 RR Bucks. $4,349,900 in RR Bucks were issued during the rewards program and on Friday about a quarter of them were spent back.
The item fetching the highest price was a bench bought for $170,000 (RR Bucks) by Cindy Lauzon.
Many other items including gift certificates, electronics, posters, appliances, toys and services went for anywhere from a low of $2,300 to upwards of $70,000.
Chamber President Susan Carpenter said she was very pleased with the promotion and said, “People should hold onto their bucks as we will likely do this again.”
The auction lasted for well over an hour and the spending of RR Bucks broke down as follows: $497,500 Adults, $380,000 Kids and $238,000 Gift Certificates for a total of $1,115,800.
There were 62 merchandise items and 18 gift certificates.
In other Canada Day news there was an exciting Kenducky Derby race that saw more than 400 ducks race down the Rainy River.
Crossing the finish line were ducks owned by 1st place and $750-Christian Tiboni (#244), 2nd place and $500 Stewart McNally/Monique Gall/Joel Ashworth/Mitch Seguin (#238) and in 3rd place and $150 Jessica Mailloux (#232).