Even when businesses are down, Frederick businesses seem to find ways to help others up. Here's just a handful of examples we've noticed:
Lending their Talents & Expertise:
Octavo Design’s ‘Nom for Good’ and ‘Cheers for Charity’ Campaigns
Seeing how badly local restaurants were hit in the first wave, Octavo designs decided to launch a fundraising campaign to help get them through the pandemic. This wildly popular ‘ Nom for Good” campaign offered Octavo-designed t-shirts with all proceeds going to help local restaurants. The promotion is currently paused as the companies work on distributing the second wave of shirts. They are considering bringing it back for a third round in the future.
After seeing the success of the Nom for Good promotion, Chris Sands from the UnCapped Podcast approached Octavo with a new proposal. The graphic design company agreed to design 3 beer glasses pro bono and created another webpage to capture donations for local downtown Frederick Breweries. The promotion ended on May 5th and the glasses are available for pick up at Idiom Brewery.
The expertise of tech companies, in particular, has been in more demand than ever, and many of our local tech companies are offering their abilities for free.
Patrick Pierson, who works with City business IronNet and volunteers as a board member of techfrederick, transferred new found free-time from in-person meet-ups to lend his talents to tech-focused projects through “helpwithcovid.com.” He is currently working on a project ‘Get Tested Covid19 – which started as a crowdsourcing mapping database for testing centers but has since moved on to automated collecting measures to increase the number of sites tracked to 2800+. In his role of DevOps, he helps provide Cybersecurity recommendations and has built some aspects of the site.
High Gear, a no-code process automation platform company, in the City of Frederick, is providing 100% pro-bono support and services to Montgomery County’s Health and Human Services department (MCHHS) to aid them with their COVID-19 related challenges. MCHHS has a number of processes which have become less efficient due to their current COVID-19 remote working environments, including processes for contract renewals and purchase order processing. They have people remotely working 12-14 hour days, 7 days a week trying to manage these requests for support manually. HighGear is using its technology & expertise to help automate their processes and clear the backlog.
Generation Media – a local media company- recently partnered free of charge with recording artist Gary Burr to spread a message of hope. "Generation Media is grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with talented, established artists like Gary Burr and Megatrax. It's personally gratifying to make a contribution like this during such a challenging time. I hope this project helps highlight the strength of Frederick’s creative community." The popular PSA has been used in nearly 100 cities across the US.
Supporting Frontline Responders
photos from: Volunteers & recipients of Magoo’s 2-for-1 meal program for frontline workers; Frontline Heroes Happy Hour
A group of Frederick-area businesses – including McCutcheons Apple Products – united on April 28th to say ‘thank you’ to our local first responders. In the drive-thru "Frontline Hero Happy Hour" event, first responders such as healthcare professionals, EMTs, firefighters, and police were given a meal & beverage package as a thank you for their continued hard work in our community during this time.
Similar efforts have been coordinated regularly by other local business leaders in our community. Many restaurants and stores are also offering discounts to frontline workers.
DRIVES & DONATIONS:
Though hard hit themselves, countless businesses in the food industry have stepped up to help feed those less fortunate. Catering companies, including Savory Spoon and Canapes, have offered free prepared meals to families and children. Frederick’s Community Action Agency and local non-profits have been the recipients of countless food donations from companies and food drives organized by local business leaders.
Local life science companies — such as VaLogic— have donated their stock of personal protective equipment (lab coats, frocks, goggles, boot covers, mask, gloves, etc.) to Frederick Health Hospital to fight shortages. Others, including the Maryland Ensemble Theater, have volunteered time brought about by closures to produce masks for those in need.
Rotary Clubs:
Living up to their motto ‘Service Above Self’, Frederick’s local Rotary Clubs – an international service organization made up of local business and community leaders -- have made incredible contributions to Frederick during the COVID-19 Crisis.
Recipients of the Small Business Resiliency Micro-Grant Program
Two of the six Frederick-area Rotary clubs have raised over $50,000 dollars to contribute to local initiatives including to the City of Frederick’s Small Business Resiliency MicroGrant Program. The clubs generous donations helped support six additional grants to help cover the rent & utility expenses of struggling business owners.
“Rotary Club of Carroll Creek is a very “hands-on” organization. Understanding that it is hard to be “hands on” during a pandemic, internally, we organized a mask sewing project, that to date (and we are still sewing!) has produced 455 masks for senior living communities, community health organizations, and local advocacy groups. The club also hosted a food drive where our members were encouraged to either donate food or money to purchase food. RCCC recently provided 3 vans full – 3,500 pounds of food - to the Frederick Community Action Agency at a time of its greatest need.” – Kimberly Chaney & Mark Mayer, Rotary Club of Carroll Creek
“Rotary Club of Frederick launched a new "Food and More" program to assist 30 seniors in need - all of whom live at or below the ALICE income thresholds, have been relying on assistance from non-profit organizations to help them with their basic needs. Over the next 3-4 months, Rotarians have devised a “contact-less” way to get bags of fresh, frozen, and canned foods, as well as household essentials, delivered to these seniors twice a month.” Mark Lancaster, President, Rotary Club of Frederick