Hecla offers nearly $50,000 in Christmas cheer

MULLAN — Hecla Mining Company's Lucky Friday Mine is putting nearly $50,000 worth of holiday cheer into the local economy via a new “Buy Local” program, Lucky Friday General Manager Clayr Alexander has announced.

“This has been a challenging year with COVID, and we wanted to further support both our employees and our Silver Valley neighbors with a ‘buy local’ program as we approach the holiday season,” Alexander said.

Michelle Horning with Lucky Friday Human Resources explains that this initiative started all the way up at Hecla Corporate.

"They were thinking of a way to put something back into the communities that our operating mines are in," she said.

This program is also being implemented in Alaska, Nevada and Quebec.

Locally, the mine is working with local partners Potlatch 1 Financial Credit Union (P1FCU) Osburn, Dave Smith Motors Kellogg, Avista Corp., and the Wallace Chamber of Commerce to launch the campaign.

How it works is Hecla will issue vouchers worth $150 to each of its 310 Lucky Friday employees to be spent at participating Silver Valley businesses. Lucky Friday will also invest with local vendors in marketing and production costs associated with the effort.

The Buy Local vouchers can be used at any participating local business from Rose Lake to Mullan and Avery to Prichard. The program runs now through Jan. 31, 2021, and each employee will receive six “Buy Local” notes worth $25 each. The vouchers must be spent in total, with no change provided and all sales tax comes out of vouchers.

Businesses can redeem the vouchers by appointment at the Wallace Chamber offices and will be able to get a window display so they can be easily identified as a participant.

“Hecla reached out to us last month about an employee voucher program that would help Silver Valley businesses affected by COVID,” said Chamber Coordinator Dave Copelan. “Together, we decided such a stimulus would be best implemented as tourism declined this fall, and in time for the holiday shopping season.”

The chamber then contacted local partners Dave Smith Motors, AVISTA and P1FCU Osburn who all contributed to the Buy Local account. P1FCU also agreed to waive all account set-up and administrative fees.

Horning, who said that the vouchers should be distributed this week, is happy that the program will be helping everyone involved.

"We're glad that we're able to work with the chamber to do this," she said. "Hopefully, it will help local businesses, especially with this year. This will also give our employees some extra spending money as we head into the holidays."