Grants keep veteran’s business afloat
SAYOTTOVILLO, N.K. >> Nicole Walcott’s lip started to quiver as she turned her misty gaze away from a reporter’s question. “I don’t want to cry on camera,” the 33-year-old said when asked why she’s fought tooth and nail to keep her small business open amid a pandemic that’s crushing countless others.
Three years ago, Walcott, a U.S. Army veteran, opened an alternative health and wellness center in Fayetteville, North Carolina, a short drive from Fort Bragg, one of the largest military installations on the planet.
It was going well, but then COVID-19 hit — a phrase that has defined the stories of so many small businesses in 2020. In fact, it’s only because of nonprofits such as San Antonio, Texasbased Operation Homefront — and Walcott’s determination to seek out every grant possible — that her business is still around.
Walcott’s alternative health and wellness center isn’t just her livelihood — it’s personal. A Humvee accident while she was serving in South Korea left Walcott with a spinal cord injury and debilitating chronic pain. When traditional pain management plans didn’t suit her, she tried flotation therapy and says the pain disappeared after her first session.
Walcott couldn’t find an alternative wellness center to continue her treatment in Fayetteville, so the mother of two worked with a private investor to open one herself.
She put in 16-hour days to build her business and it was paying off.
“We were having our best year ever in 2019. We were booked all day, every day, we were open seven days a week,” she said.
The pandemic changed everything.
In March, the state of North Carolina forced Walcott’s doors to close. They stayed shut for three months.
“W hen the revenue dropped 95%, we didn’t know what we were going to do,”
she told the Associated Press.
But while the Wellness Center sat dormant on downtown Fayetteville’s main drag, Walcott did not. She dug in her heels and started researching financial assistance to support her business and her family. Her husband, an Army veteran himself and Fayetteville police officer, began working the night shift to help with the kids during the day as Walcott hovered over her laptop searching for lifelines.
“I literally took those 16 hours and I completely switched to finding every piece of knowledge I could about grants,” she said.
At the same time, the nonprofit Operation Homefront began to see their requests for assistance skyrocket. The nonprofit helps military families facing financial hardships with things like rent, utilities and food assistance.