Making a Difference
Our Members. Our Community. Our Region.
The Cape Ann Chamber and its affiliated Community Foundation Announce Grand Opening This announcement marks a major milestone for our organization, our members, and the entire region. See More

Cape Ann Community Foundation Announce 2020 Grant Awards; Marking their fourth annual funding cycle, The Board of Directors of the Cape Ann Community Foundation (CACF) announced yesterday that they have awarded grants totaling $15,000 to six Cape Ann area non-profit organizations. See More

Chamber Team Welcomes New Events Director We are pleased to welcome Sara Bowen to our team. Sara was born and raised in New Hampshire and graduated from Colby-Sawyer College. See More

Chamber Wins BONS Best 2020 Winter Festival for Christmas in Rockport; We are honored to receive the Reader’s Choice Award for Best Winter Festival. Thank you to the planning committee and all of the volunteers who made the event award winning. See More

August CEO and President Update; Ken Riehl and Tony Sapienza update our members on recent news, milestones, and chamber operations. See More

Government Affairs Update; The Government Affairs Council since April has held its monthly meetings via Zoom. The Chamber recently hosted our Cape Ann legislators for a Beacon Hill update as part of our Business Check-In and Information Sharing meeting See More

Tourism Council Update; In 2020, staying connected online has never been more important, and there is a new resource for those of us in tourism business: the Cape Ann Tourism online community. See More
  • Dashboard for August 3: The most recent daily Dashboard of Public Health Indicators shows trends that have elevated concerns among state public health officials. The positive test rate (7-day weighted average) briefly rose above 2% (now back at 2%) for the first time in weeks. The number of hospitalized patients increased to 406 on August 2, after having stayed below 400 since July 24 (3-day weighted average), but encouragingly dropped back to 375 on August 3.

  • New Travel Order Now in Effect. The state’s new travel order became effective Saturday, August 1. With certain exemptions visitors to Massachusetts and Massachusetts residents returning from states other than Hawaii, New York and New England are now required to self-quarantine for 14 days unless they have had a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of arriving. For details, please click here. For a one-page printable flyer on the travel order, please click here.

  • Congress Negotiating New COVID-19 Stimulus/Relief Bill. Congressional leaders and White House officials continued talks over the weekend on a legislative package that could further extend the Paycheck Protection Program and expand eligibility to Chambers of Commerce and Destination Marketing Organizations. Read the ASAE’s full summary of the HEALS Act proposed by Senate Republicans here.

  • Phase 3 Clinical Trials for Vaccine Underway. With 30,000 volunteers from across America, phase 3 trials for a promising COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company Moderna have commenced. To read the full announcement from the National Institutes for Health (NIH) please click here.

  • PPP Extension Ends Saturday. Small businesses now have until this Saturday, August 8 to apply for assistance. For more information please click here. To join the SBA’s District Director Bob Nelson for a Lunch & Learn session on PPP this Wednesday, August 5, from noon to 1pm, please register here.

  • MassINC Statewide Small Business Recovery Survey. Close to 1900 businesses responded to this survey providing a rich data set of the needs of small businesses and micro-enterprises. Use this link to view the press release, recording from the original Zoom and all of the results.

Information Resources:

For comprehensive COVID-19 information please visit the Chamber’s special Coronavirus page.

For the latest COVID-19 news and information for Massachusetts, please visit www.mass.gov.

For Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante’s August 3 Legislative and COVID-19 newsletter please click here.
August 8 at 9am via Zoom

A memorable day of golf was had at the 31st Annual Business Education & Scholarship Golf Tournament. Congratulations to our winning teams!


Congratulations to Happy Valley MA on their grand opening! We are so happy to welcome Gloucester's first dispensary to Cape Ann's business community.

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
at Hammond Castle

Hammond Castle Museum opened for their 45th season on July 16th. Hammond Castle Museum has so much to offer visitors and the community. We wish you a wonderful season and thank you for allowing us to celebrate the occasion
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
at Esmeralda - Jewelry,
Accessories and Gifts

We celebrated the Grand Opening of Esmeralda Jewelry's new location on July 29th. The store is located at to 28 Bearskin Neck in Rockport and offers hand crafted jewelry, gifts, and accessories by women artisans.

Generous Gardeners Has Been Selected To Be Part of the Stop & Shop Community Reusable Bag Program

For the month of August, each time a reusable bag is purchased at the Thatcher Rd. location, $1 will be donated to their organization
Eat Local This Harvest Season With New England’s First Mobile App Promoting Local Food

Cape Ann Artisans 2020 Summer Mini-Tour  

Join a select group of the Cape Ann Artisans for the second mini tour of the season.

Integrated HR’s Laurie LaBrie Welcomes Businesses To Dispose of Unwanted Electronics at Scout Troop 49's Electronics Recycling Event

Rockport Music Looks Towards 2021 and Gives an Update on Live In-Person Concerts
QUARRY DANCE NINE is Happening This Summer as a Film

The film will be streamed in mid-to-late August, complete with original music by jazz musician and multi-instrumentalist Russ Gershon. 

Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre, the innovative NYC based company which has performed the Quarry Dances for the past eight years, was in residence at Rockport’s Windhover Performing Arts Center in July

We would like to extend a big thank you to our supporting sponsors.

If you are interested in promoting with the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce and sponsoring this newsletter, please contact Ken Riehl at ken@capeannchamber.com
Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce capeannchamber.com