YOUR LOCAL

The Business

of Love

How the West Orange Chamber of Commerce will lead our community forward to bright futures.

By Stina D’Uva

February, the month of love, has most of us thinking of Valentine’s Day. With that, stores, homes and even businesses are adorned with hearts, cupids and red and pink trimmings. We’re all thinking of how we can demonstrate our love to our Valentines on that one special day.

However, just as there are many stories of the origins of Valentine’s Day, there are also many ways to show love. I would say that 2021 — not just one day or one month — should be all about love, understanding and respect.

The last year and month demonstrated that people around the world are more like us than we ever could have imagined. All countries have been hurt by the pandemic. We've all experienced some of the same challenges: illness, financial hardship and, yes, even our country has experienced social unrest and division.

Despite the division that has been experienced in our country, we all have a love for our country as well as the freedoms and opportunities provided to us through our democracy and republic. That commonality should unite us.

I know that West Orange residents and businesses will move us forward for the greater good of our community and our country. If we work together, respect one another and our differences, and have compassion, kindness and love toward one another, it will be our past and never again our future.

Moving us forward toward a bright future, the chamber will continue its efforts to provide resources and programming to support our members and to get them past these difficult times. Our programming will include ongoing information regarding PPP, EIDL, PPE and a host of other resources. We will also continue our work on diversity, equity and inclusion and encourage support of all of our members.

Our community can demonstrate its love and support for our members by shopping and doing business with them, not only for Valentine’s Day, but every day of the year. The businesses that join our chamber contribute to the betterment of our community each and every day because they understand why our chamber exists. It exists to be the connector within our community to make certain that our businesses have what they need to be successful so that they can be the job creators, payroll providers and contributors to schools and charities. Your help and support enable them to continue to be the backbone of our greater West Orange community.