Chamber aims to make connections

During this trying time across the world, people are fearing what they may face with each new day during this COVID-19 virus crisis.

I feel lucky to live in a small county and town in Southwest Virginia. Our county administrator, David Moore, has done an excellent job in keeping everyone updated on facts, keeping calmness and professionalism on top of his priorities. Our leaders in each town and our county Board of Supervisors have done a great job for our county.
Our small businesses are suffering, our elderly generation is fearful of stepping out and our emergency personnel are working hard in dealing with this disaster. Our thanks to all our faithful employees who are out caring for the sick, making sure shelves are stocked so our citizens can have food and other supplies they need, delivering food to our kids, keeping our citizens safe each and every day.
Our chamber of commerce is seeking possible resources to help the small businesses in our county, trying to encourage local support to these businesses, and will continue to do so for as long as it takes. We will be posting possible leads for our business owners during the next few weeks. We encourage everyone to support our businesses; they need you now more than ever. We have several restaurants who are doing carry-out meals or drive-through windows, furniture store who will meet you outside for any of your needs, drive-through pharmacies, grocery stores with special hours for our seniors to get their shopping done early, and many businesses owners who are doing special deals for our citizens during this time.

We are trying to compose a list of businesses that are opened in the county, their hours and any special message they want to share. If you can send us that information, we will post it on our website and social media pages. Send to chamber@dcwin.org or call us at 276/926-6074.

My final thought is how lucky we are to be able to relieve some of our stress by getting out on one of our many trails, going to the lake to do some fishing or to one of our rivers, bike riding, ATV riding, kayaking or canoeing, or just getting out to enjoy some fresh air and the beauty of spring with all the trees in bloom and the birds busy making their nests. There is beauty here in our mountains and a peacefulness you cannot find in the cities. Take a break and know that this will all be behind us before long, hopefully soon. We are all here together, we will help each other and we will get though it. God bless everyone and stay safe.

Resources for small business owners:

• Small Business Administration/USA, https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/small-business-administration.

• The Virginia Small Business Development Center, https://www.virginiasbdc.org/.

• Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority, http://www.vaceda.org/.

• Dickenson County Industrial Development Authority, www.dickensonva.org.

• Small business centers at Southwest Community College and Mountain Empire Community College.