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www.thevillagenews.co.za
17 June 2020
MY COMMUNITY
Help us to help you T
he Village NEWS’s production manager and photographer, Taylum Meyer has launched a community project in her spare time called 'Support Local - Love where you live', to assist local businesses to get back on their feet after the prolonged COVID-19 lockdown. By utilising her photography skills and making use of social media, Taylum is offering her photography services free of charge to help market and promote the unique offerings of local businesses that are the lifeblood of Hermanus. “I have only been living in Hermanus for about eight years but I feel like this is my community. By working for the newspaper I have met some
incredible people and learnt so much about our town. I love living here,” she says. “Having gotten to know several local business owners, I knew that many of them would struggle to survive the lockdown and I wanted to somehow offer my help. I did a post to my Facebook page (Titanium Photography) and challenged other photographers in the area to get involved as well. I very quickly had a response from like-minded people who offered either their photography or marketing services – all free of charge. It is just amazing that so many people are prepared to help their community despite going through their own troubles during this time.” The 'Support Local - Love where you live' project is driven by Taylum through Facebook and Instagram. She is happy to report that she now has an excellent photography team on board to assist businesses in other areas such as Caledon (Melinda Maidment Photography), Stanford (Photo:Sight), Sandbaai (Third Eye Productions) and Onrus (Dan Photography). Hermanus Experiences, Aktileda Marketing and The Village NEWS are all involved in the marketing side of the project.
“Now, more than ever, our locally-owned businesses need as much of our support as possible. The future is uncertain for almost everyone as we wonder what will happen in the next few weeks and months. Only by being there for each other can we somehow make it through to the other side of this pandemic.” Taylum, who last year won an FCJ (Forum for Community Journalism) award for her photography, says any locally-owned business is welcome to contact her to make an appointment for a free, once-off photo shoot. The areas she covers include Eastcliff, Westcliff, Hermanus Industria, Gateway and the Hermanus CBD. For businesses further afield, one of the other volunteer photographers taking part in the project will be ready to jump in. “We will come and meet you to have a chat about your business and take photographs that will be posted to the 'Support Local - Love where you live' page. The post will include all the relevant information about your business and will also be shared widely across several other social media platforms, including those of The Village NEWS. Aktileda Marketing will help with a month’s free marketing and
ESSENTIAL SERVICES – WE ARE OPEN
Taylum Meyer has launched a project to assist locally-owned businesses, in collaboration with a group of volunteer photographers and marketing teams. Here she is with one of her photos at the Hermanus Photographic Society display during the FynArts Festival last year.
Hermanus Experiences is offering a free business listing on their website.” In addition, the photographs taken will be given to the business owners for their own marketing purposes. “The professionals who have volunteered their skills and time to support this project will not be getting anything out of it and are doing it purely to assist their community. Business owners just need to understand that we are all doing this in our spare time and our main jobs must always come first. “People often think there’s no such
thing as a free lunch, but there’s no catch!” laughs Taylum. “It has been truly rewarding for me to help our local businesses, knowing that maybe we may be able to make some small difference.” To find out more about this project, visit ‘Support Local – Love where you live’ on Facebook and look for the pinned post. To make a booking for a photo shoot, simply find the email address on the pinned post for the photographer in your area, or contact Taylum at titanium.photog@gmail.com. - Hedda Mittner
