On a campus that prides itself on its philanthropic success, it is hard to stand out. However, La Alianza’s Buy Local Competition has managed to do just that.
The Buy Local Competition is an incentive-driven contest that aims to encourage members of the Wabash community to spend money at local businesses in Crawfordsville. Entrants can submit their receipts to La Alianza Treasurer Jesse Herrera ’26 by email or text in exchange for tickets in a raffle. The more you spend, and the more receipts you submit, the more tickets with your name on it are entered into the raffle.
The winner of the raffle will receive a $100 Amazon gift card, second place $50 to Amazon and $25 to the 1832 Brew, and third place is another $25 Brew gift card. The prizes may be motivation enough, but Herrera – who organized the competition this year – believes there is a more important reason for students to participate.
“We want it to be seen that Wabash men go out and help people,” said Herrera. “We want to go out and do things, and show local businesses that they’re one of us. We’d like as many guys as we can get to push this message that we’re all one community.”
La Alianza has higher hopes than ever for the Buy Local Competition’s third iteration in as many years. The group aims to improve on its tally from last year of $12,000 spent at small businesses in just two weeks. That was an improvement from the competition’s inaugural year when just south of $10,000 was spent at local businesses. This year’s goal is a whopping $15,000. Without a doubt, $15,000 is a steep goal. However, La Alianza President Cris Cantu ’26 is confident this target can be smashed by the Wabash community. Institutional backing from the College and exciting news about the new Latino Community Center turned a lot of peoples’ heads toward the work La Alianza has been doing.
“I’m confident we’ll break the $15,000 goal because more people are looking at what we’re doing,” said Cantu. “It’s not that people didn’t want to help as much before, but some people just didn’t know what we did because we were small. That’s fine, but now we have a spotlight, we’re trying to capitalize off the spotlight in a positive way.”
One of the misconceptions Wabash community members looking to compete in Buy Local may have is that there is only a small list of businesses and restaurants that can be submitted. Herrera wants people to know that any local small business goes, not just the usual go-tos for Wabash students.
“It’s not restricted to one list of 10 places, everywhere counts,” said Herrera. “There are tons of businesses out here. It doesn’t have to be catered just to food, clothing or gifts. You can go anywhere.”
The Buy Local Competition is just one of many events La Alianza has planned for the semester. The group plans to co-host some TGIFs, continue their much-adored carne asada grill outs and run a Homecoming tailgate this Saturday with the Mariachi club. La Alianza will also continue to help out in the wider Crawfordsville community by reading to students at local elementary schools and offering translation services to people.