Easton Main Street Unveils New Gift Cards

The Easton Main Street Initiative wants to make it easy to do your holiday shopping in the city's downtown this year.

Instead of buying gifts at a few different places, or even buying a few different gift-cards, why not one card that works at 58 different downtown businesses?

That's the idea behind the Downtown Easton Gift Card, launched in September but unveiled for the public for the first time Friday.

"It really is a one size fits all present," Amy Boccadoro, assistant manager of the initiative, said at a news conference Friday. "It gives people a chance to try new businesses or support the ones they love."

The program came about in part through Kerry Harrington of Pearly Baker's, who brought the idea to the initiative. She was under the weather Friday and couldn't speak, so Pearly Baker's co-owner Jonathan Davis did so on her behalf.

The card program, he said, is "a real testament to how we've come" in the downtown. "We couldn't have dreamed to that level of participation 20 years ago."

The cards can take as little as $5 and as much as $500, and are also good at the city's new parking meters. There's a $2 activation fee.

The cards are available at the EMI office at 35 South Third Street, the Sigal Museum, 342 Northampton Street, or inline at www.eastonmainstreet.org. Boccadoro said the initiative will soon update its smartphone app to allow people to look up information about the cards.