Ours is a changing world.
With the news of COVID-19, coronavirus, changing moment by moment, it’s hard to keep up. The NBA has gone dark. So has Broadway. The baseball season is suspended. Co-eds across America are returning home from university, their semesters at school over or migrating online. Students in the school districts around us are moving their learning home.
Here in the south sound, with positive cases popping up, life is changing too. Meetings have been cancelled, businesses have ramped up cleaning procedures, and all of us are taking precautions where we can.
Here at the Chamber, we’re making some of those changes too. But our mission remains the strong: to serve our local businesses and community.
We can’t panic. But we can prepare.
Friday’s Leads at Lunch will continue.
March 26’s Drive 507 Business After Hours is, for now, scheduled to move forward. We will have increased hand sanitizing stations and encourage fist or elbow bumps to take the place of the hand shake.
Local businesses can be of great help to us at times like this. Restaurants and other eateries offer hot, nourishing meals, and many have takeout options. Banks and credit unions can assist with special loan funds. Stores selling food, medical supplies, and other necessities are nearby and easily accessible.
I could go on, but know that helping to support local businesses, while always important, is crucial at a time like this. These same businesses are the ones supporting our kids’ fundraiser, sponsoring the events that bring so much enjoyment to our community, the ones where we gather with friends, where the workers know our names. We need them to be around not only next week or next month, but for years to come. Let’s support them, where we are able, to get them through this time.
If you want to support a local business, but maybe belong to an at-risk part of our population, you can purchase a gift certificate now to be used later. Steps like that will enable local businesses to keep paying their staffs – your friends, family members, and neighbors – and keep businesses viable in our community.
Stay calm. Stay informed. Support local.
And let’s all look forward to better times ahead.