Last year right about now a lot of small businesses were scared about what was coming, and wondering what we were going to do.

Did we have to close? If we did, how would I pay my staff? How would they pay their bills? How would I pay rent?

If we stayed open, how could I protect my staff? How could we protect our customers? If I got sick, how would I take care of the staff and make sure they were paid?

So many questions, so much uncertainty.

And here we are - one year later.

Thanks to all of you, we made it. We are one of the very, very fortunate businesses who made it through 2020. Thanks to all of you, my staff got paid, rent and utilities were paid, I was able to hire more people, and Dogma was able to help those in need during 2020.

We helped our local pet food pantry at Animal Welfare League of Arlington with discounted cat and dog food ( purchased through your gift card donations) and donated a ton of beds for the holidays.

We helped Veterans Moving Forward by buying hundreds of their face masks that in turn helped a small local business whose wedding business collapsed - and she pivoted by making face masks.

We helped our local restaurants as much as we could by ordering food for the staff on a daily basis. I think we are all still using the famous Copperwood Tavern popcorn spices they sold early on....

We bought hand sanitizer out the wazoo from a local distillery, Cotton and Reed. I personally am still using it daily!

As we always do, but it became more needed, we donated so much food - just so much - to the rescues who needed it and had vans coming here from rural areas in the Southeast.

Lucky Dog Animal Rescue used our store for their many transports that didn't stop during Covid - so thank goodness we were able to be open for them.

We bought hundreds of dollars of gift cards from three local restaurants at our Lake Anne store in Reston to help them and to give to the customers as a thank you for driving out that way when we just couldn't accommodate them in Arlington.

I can't even tell you the number of t-shirts I bought for the staff from the many fundraisers local rescues held. That's why you may see a lot of us in matching t-shirts that aren't from Dogma - it's scary how often we accidentally wear the same shirt.

I went into every local hardware store, and every small business I could for any of the supplies we needed to stay open - sometimes it took many trips until I could find what I needed, but it was important to me to help other local businesses like you helped us.

Bottom line is that you all are the reason that we could do so much for so many others in our community this past year. We appreciate your support, and your patience and understanding while we dealt with the increasing number of phone calls, the massive amount of emails, the mask requirement, and the mistakes that we inevitably made during this time.

We all thank you so much. We really do. Thank you.

Sheila, Ann, Tico, Elise, McKenna, Sydney S., Sydney O., Carol, Caroline, Jenessa, Ashley, Mackenzie, Alisa, Cherie, Halle, and Holli