January, 2020
Chamber Chat Newsletter
Thankfully and mercifully 2020 has finally come to an end. Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic continues to rage and so we must maintain our commitment to being socially conscious and responsible in our behavior. Please pay attention to the joint education effort on behalf of the Chamber and the Town of Wakefield ….
WEAR A MASK – WASH YOUR HANDS – WATCH YOUR DISTANCE

There is some good news as it does appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel. We now have the availability of a vaccine and we need to be patient as it will take some time to reach all of us. But help it is on the way.

In the mean time we must continue to do all we can to support our local businesses and one another. Shop local and buy local as often as you can and even go a little out of your way when possible to visit and support our local business community.

As far as Chamber activities during the month of December we stayed busy as usual working to encourage that support for our local businesses. We aggressively supported Small Business Saturday and our final end of the season Saturdays on the Sidewalk. Thank you to both residents and merchants alike for participating in the great effort to shop and buy local.

In our usual fashion, we began December with our monthly “Breakfast Club” networking, which is one of our most popular sessions. Thank you again to all of you stalwarts who help keep this morning social networking event going!

We hosted our first annual “Santa Parade” on Saturday December 12 and it was a huge success. Thank you to all of our Reindeer helpers: The Savings Bank, Wakefield Co-operative Bank, Dockside Restaurant, First Financial Trust, Cataldo Ambulance, Mystic Painting, Wakefield Municipal Light and Gas and Subaru of Wakefield for providing Santa’s sleigh. Lastly what’s a Santa parade without Santa – thank you David Fama with The Savings Bank! Great job by all!   

Working together with our partners at SCORE, we are able to provide access to a number of diverse and interesting virtual seminars. Please be sure to review the email the Chamber sent or click here to visit the website. 

Looking forward to a prosperous and better 2021 and seeing you all soon.
Our Newsletter Sponsors:
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
New Covid-19 Dashboard
The state has released a new interactive dashboard that illustrates useful COVID data.
New Funding
for Businesses by Sector
The Baker Administration has released the guidelines for the $668 million small business grant program that was announced last week and which will be administered by Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation. Massachusetts-based and located for-profit businesses can receive up to $75,000 or up to 3 months of operating expenses to be used for payroll, benefit costs, mortgage interest, rent, utilities and interest on other debt obligations. Expenses can be considered since March 10, 2020, given that it does not exceed 3 months of operating expenses.
The weather nor COVID could prevent us from hosting a socially safe ribbon cutting ceremony for Enforma Fitness Center and PNC Bank.
Santa's Wakefield Tour 2020