Shop Your Community Day, a normal one-day event held in downtown Traverse City each November, has been extended to a three-day event this year due to the pandemic.

The renamed Shop Your Community Days will take place Thursday-Saturday (November 12-14) at 60+ participating downtown merchants and restaurants. While patronizing these businesses, customers can choose from a list of 30 local nonprofits and donate five percent of their purchase total to the nonprofit of their choice. A complete list of participating merchants and nonprofits is available here.

This year, Shop Your Community Days will also serve as the official launch of the Downtown Relief Fund campaign. The fund has been developed by the Downtown Development Authority and Downtown Traverse City Association in partnership with Venture North’s Resiliency Fund to offer rent relief to downtown businesses in early 2021. The DTCA will be matching all funds raised for local nonprofits during Shop Your Community Days and donating them directly to the Downtown Relief Fund.

“Sadly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have had to cancel a lot of our downtown events this year,” says Downtown Experience Coordinator Nick Viox. “However, we decided that Shop Your Community Days is too important to our downtown to cancel. The DTCA Board decided that extending it to three days would allow safer social distancing in stores and restaurants and give shoppers a longer chance to participate.”