Treasure Island to support the Holiday Stroll drone show and Small Business Saturday events

This story originally appeared in the Red Wing Republican Eagle (https://www.republicaneagle.com/news/treasure-island-to-support-the-holiday-stroll-drone-show-and-small-business-saturday-events/article_c147a498-a87a-11ef-b502-4f484a194625.html)

With 1,700 employees, Treasure Island Resort & Casino is the largest employer in Goodhue County. By that standard, one would hardly consider it a small business. But that hasn’t stopped the casino from sponsoring Small Business Saturday in Red Wing in a big way.

For the second straight year, Treasure Island has generously purchased gift cards to downtown Red Wing businesses during the Holiday Stroll on Nov. 29.

Small Business Saturday is the following day, Nov. 30.

The Treasure Island Wheel will be stationed among all the Holiday Stroll festivities on Friday, Nov. 29, starting at 4 p.m. Visitors with a Holiday Stroll button can spin for free, and wherever the wheel lands determines what gift card the spinner receives.

Treasure Island generously purchased $10,000 in gift cards. Forty $25 gift cards will be available for each of the 10 downtown businesses listed here:

• 210 Plum Crazy

• Cut Above Home

• Red Wing Bicycle Co.

• Mandy's Coffee & Café

• Carlson's Sports Center

• Simple Abundance

• Uffda Shop

• Red Wing Restyle/ Tootsie Too's

• Red Wing Confectionery

• Phileo Style

The first 200 spinners during the Holiday Stroll will also receive a voucher for a free buffet at Treasure Island’s Tradewinds Buffet.

“Normally, at events like this, we would use the Treasure Island Wheel to bring people into the casino,” says Treasure Island’s Aaron Seehusen. But now the casino sees the wheel, and the Holiday Stroll, as an easy, fun way to give back to the community that makes up a significant portion of their clientele and workforce.

Holiday Stroll attendees hoping to get a gift card should plan to arrive early. “We ran out pretty quickly because we had a huge line,” Seehusen says about last year’s gift cards. The line was so long they had to open before the rest of the Holiday Stroll began. 

As for the businesses whose gift cards Treasure Island bought, Molly Langer, events & outreach Coordinator for Red Wing Downtown Main Street, says they “feel really supported” and appreciate that Treasure Island has “a vested interest in downtown Red Wing.”

In addition to the gift cards, Treasure Island is a big part of bringing the drone show to this year’s Holiday Stroll.

The drone show is a replacement for the typical fireworks show. When the fireworks became unfeasible this year due to the usual fireworks provider retiring, Downtown Main Street and Mississippi Alumination, Red Wing’s usual fireworks fundraisers, pivoted to a drone show. Treasure Island was happy to fund this as well. Seehusen sees drone shows as fun, which, he says, perfectly aligns with the casino’s brand of “Destination Fun.”

In addition to the novelty and inherent fun of a drone show, there are some benefits. While the specifics of the show are under wraps, “a lot of the imagery will be custom and specific to this drone show,” explains Langer. Viewers can expect the Holiday Stroll theme of “Baking Spirits Bright” to come through in the drone display in ways that wouldn’t be possible with fireworks. The drones will be visible high above Memorial Park. 

But more than anything, the drone show will be a community event. As Langer puts it, “Everyone can stand together in the streets of Red Wing and look up and enjoy it together.”

Thanks to the drone show and Treasure Island’s generous donation of gift cards, downtown Red Wing will be even more festive.