Organizers collect local purchases to show how visiting shooters support Raton businesses
By Roger Rael
Staff Writer
RATON, N.M. — A large bucket filled with restaurant, hotel, fuel and retail receipts may soon give Raton a clearer answer to a question local leaders often ask: How much money do major events at the NRA Whittington Center bring into town?
During the recent lever-gun competition south of Raton, organizers asked visiting shooters to save receipts from purchases made in the city and turn them in at the range.
Lorraine Markwardt, who helped staff the event, said the idea was simple. Rather than relying on estimates or general claims about economic activity, organizers wanted to gather actual proof of what visitors were spending.
“We’ve been having the shooters collect receipts for money they’ve spent in Raton,” Markwardt said. “Every day they come in and put them in the bucket, and there’s a lot of them in there.”
The receipts included purchases from local restaurants, hotels, gas stations, stores and other businesses used by competitors and their families during the event.
To encourage participation, organizers drew three receipts each day and awarded $15 to each person selected.
By Thursday, the collection container was nearly full.
Markwardt said the receipts would be added together and the final amount presented to city officials. The total had not yet been calculated.
The effort could provide Raton with a more accurate measure of how spending connected to the Whittington Center moves through the local economy.
A shooter may spend several days in the area, purchase fuel more than once, eat multiple meals in town, and make additional purchases for equipment, groceries or travel needs. Family members and spectators can add to that total.
Those individual purchases may appear small on their own, but together they can represent significant business for local merchants during a multi-day competition.
The receipt project also gives organizers documentation they can use when discussing the value of future events, tourism promotion and cooperation between the Whittington Center and the city.
For local businesses, the most important result may not be the size of the crowd at the range, but what visitors do before and after the shooting ends.
They sleep in Raton, eat in Raton, buy gas in Raton and carry part of the event’s financial impact into businesses across the community.
Markwardt said the completed total would help show that impact in a way city officials could see on paper.
The bucket was not filled with estimates.
It was filled with receipts.
