It's been an unprecedented week. "Social distancing" has become the new norm as we all seek to slow the spread of Coronavirus. By doing this everywhere, lives will be saved, but we will all be impacted, and our necessary behaviors will unfortunately create difficulties for many of our members and those in our communities. Certain business sectors and industries are already being impacted, and from a business and economic standpoint, these developments will be challenging for most everyone.

For the time being, it's not "business as usual". This underscores what it means to be part of a community - we are all truly in this together. With that in mind, the Chamber is going to refrain from promoting upcoming events for the time being . In the meantime:

* If you are in need of any specific help, or have questions that we can assist you in getting answers for, please reach out to us ... we are here to support our members and the community, so please let us know if you need anything.

* If you need or want an alternate location to work or just take a break, as always the Chamber Welcome Center here at 28 Water St. will be open every workday for members and anyone else who needs it.

* If you have important information or updates from your company/organization that need to be shared to the membership about this current crisis, please let us know.

* Local small businesses need your support now more than ever , please keep that in mind in the coming days and weeks.

* For the foreseeable future, the Chamber will focus on sharing helpful information to our members (see below) ... some of it might be redundant, but when in doubt and during periods of uncertainty, it's better to over-communicate. There will no doubt be concrete programs regarding state and federal economic resources for impacted businesses, other governmental support programs, etc. unveiled in the near future. Right now, the situation is evolving daily and these specific resources are coming together - we will periodically share what we know.

This is rough - but it will likely be rougher on many others, especially those with little resources and the most vulnerable in our community. Let's all try to help one another get through this together, and reach out to those who will feel better just hearing from us. Have a restful weekend.


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