Chamber of Commerce happenings ...

Managing Editor

This past year was different and contained a lot of struggles, especially for local small businesses across the nation. Small business in Howard County was not immune to the negative impacts felt by statewide and nationwide shutdowns, but through the support of local grants, support and creative ideas, Big Spring and Howard County was able to continue to persevere through 2020.

“Our slogan of ‘Buy Local, Try Local and Shop Local’ rang truer than ever this year. It was important that as a community we supported our neighbors, our friends, and our family,” Debbye Valverde, Executive Director of the Big Spring Area Chamber of Commerce, said. “Shopping local allowed local businesses to keep their doors open and helped ensure they would be able to keep their doors open to get through this.”

While many of the Big Spring Area Chamber of Commerce annual events ended up cancelled, for the safety of the community, toward the end of the year, the Chamber Ambassadors and board members were able to gather for a few small networking events and Thank You Presentation.

“We had to make some hard choices this year and cancel many of our events, but we knew it was the right choice for our community, for our board and for everyone invovled,” ValVerde said. “We want to get back to normal, but we want everyone to stay healthy so we can all get back there together.”

At the beginning of the year, it seemed the Health Fair would be able to still take place, but after postponing and rescheduling twice, it was determined in the best interest of those involved with the event and the community to hold off until the 2021 event.

For a few months, the Thank You Presentations and the Alive After 5 events were also put on hold, in an effort to deter large gatherings.

“We want to support our smallbusinesses and provide an opportunity for networking, but we wanted to be safe about it,” Valverde said. “Our community businesses are a vital life line in our community, and the business profiessionals who make up this community are important to the Chamber and to the growth of the community. We had to get creative this year when it came to supporting them, but at the top of every decision was safety.”

Through trial and error the Big Spring Area Chamber of Commerce worked with Chamber members and non-members in an effort to get information out to everyone and do what we could to help support all local businesses in Big Spring and Howard County.

As we look to head into a new year and put 2020 behind us, the Big Spring Area Chamber of Commerce is planning events as usual, but has not announced any hard dates as there is still no clear time frame as to when the pandemic will be under control. To keep up with Chamber events, follow the Big Spring Area Chamber of Commerce Facebook page, or call the office at 263-7641.