In the midst of COVID-19 crisis, Clayton Chamber remains focused on mission

By RANDY CAPPS

CLAYTON — On an unseasonably warm winter morning, Dana Wooten, president and CEO of the Clayton Chamber of Commerce, shared an outlook for 2021 that was as warm and bright as the weather outside her office.

“We have a very full 2021 calendar,” she said. “Hopefully, things are going to open back up. We’ve got our Spring Fling in April, which is our Harvest Festival from 2020. And then we’ll do another Harvest Festival in 2021. So, the Clayton Chamber will be very busy.”

A&S Lawn Preservation was one of the winners of the CCF Small Business Grant.

COVID-19 crisis wreaked havoc on the chamber calendar last year, but despite having to find ways to survive without the events that drive its revenue, the chamber remained focused on its mission — helping small businesses.

In June, the Clayton Chamber Foundation launched a Small Business Recovery Grant Fund to help those businesses in the Clayton area that experienced economic hardship related to COVID-19. So far, the fund has distributed $27,000 to 15 different businesses including: A&S Lawn Preservation, Auntie’s Cottage, Cary School of Creative Arts, Chefella’s Event Planning and Catering, Country Superstars 102.3, WKJO-FM, Dylan’s Unique Gifts and Weddings, Freedom Travel by Sharon, First Street Tavern, Glow Yoga, House of Hope of NC, Image Builders Embroidery and Screen Printing, JoCo Kutz and Stylz LLC, Neighborhood Academy of Music, Purna Yoga East and Victory Power Yoga.

“We are so proud of how strong and resilient our community has been during these difficult times,” Wooten said. “The Clayton Chamber Foundation is blown away by the love and support shown for our small business community. We are so thankful for each and every donor that made this campaign possible. This $27,000 created a way for the Clayton Chamber Foundation to be able to directly support 15 different recovering small businesses right here in Clayton. This has been a humbling fourmonth campaign, and although we are sad to see the campaign come to an end, we can rest assured that this made a significant impact for many businesses during this pandemic.”

The Harvest Festival hopes to make its return to Clayton in 2021.

The program was made possible by community donations and awarded on a first-come basis, providing all criteria was met by the applicant. Most of the funds came from private donations, but the Town of Clayton made a contribution, and the Carolina Youth Theatre donated 50 percent of its proceeds from its virtual summer performance to the fund.

“When CCF first envisioned assisting small businesses through small business grants, our greatest reservation was the fear of not being able to provide the grants due to lack of donations,” Clayton Chamber Foundation Board Chair, Tony Brown of Caterpillar, said. “Our fears were quickly relieved when almost immediately we started receiving donations from our wonderful community. Each small business that received a CCF grant was very thankful and appreciative. It was extremely uplifting to hear the stories about how these grants would help them through this hardship and enable them to pull through this pandemic. No doubt Clayton and the surrounding community is an awesome place to work and live.”

That spirit was one of the reasons that the chamber wanted to help those local businesses even while facing its own difficulties.

“A lot of people lose sight of the fact that a chamber of commerce is a business as well,” Wooten said. “And a nonprofit. So, we have some challenges just like other businesses do. But, in the sense of community and the fact that part of our mission is to champion the business community, we felt like it was important for us to show that we stand behind our mission and we wanted to help small businesses as much as we could during this time. Not only monetarily, but with resources on how to cope during the COVID crisis.”

“During this time, we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from the business community and the realization of the value that we do bring (to them),” she said. “I feel like that we’ve continued to provide value and information and resources to them throughout 2020 and will continue to do so. We’ve got some great plans moving forward. Our theme for 2021 is REACH, which stands for recharge, enlighten, adapt, champion and highlight. So, those are going to be our focus words for 2021. We’re going to continue to reach for the best.”