13 minute read
Our Partner & Support Organizations
by Zachary Sielicky
Salem is a city of bright spots. Catalysts for positive change. Conveners of resources. Champions for the community. Is there a better place than 503 to share stories of champions for Salem? We couldn’t think of one, so we rounded up some champions to tell us their stories – reluctant as they were – about what they and their teams have done to make Salem brighter for all.
Gepetto’s Italian Restaurant delivers pizza to Salem Police Department.
Geppetto’s Italian Restaurant
Pizza with the cheese on top is making its way throughout Salem and beyond with the help of Geppetto’s Italian Restaurant, Partnership and Perseverance Delivery. With the support of with the Salem Convention Center, The Grand Hotel, Bentley’s and Phoenix Inn and Suites, throughout the month of April, they provided pizza for each Salem Police Department patrol shift!
When the “Stay Home, Save Lives” Executive Order went out, Julie Hoy and her team at Geppetto’s were shaken.
“What do we do? How do we do this?” they asked. It had been just one year since a fire had closed down Geppetto’s. This time, they hadn’t lost everything — they just needed to figure out how to operate without bar and lottery revenue.
Vien To with a batch of her masks and Clark County Deputy Fire Marshall Josh Taylor.
of adding another delivery vehicle, they quickly found staff they could shift into the kitchen and transferred their services to delivery. There have been a few bumps in the road – they have to direct-source for their sausage supply. At one point, they almost ran out of ‘ to-go boxes, then pizza boxes, and then it was paper bags.
“I call each of these obstacles as they come ‘pitches,’ and we’re standing in the batter’s box and don’t get to stop swinging,” Hoy said. “We have to meet each challenge as it comes, and fortunately that’s what we’ve been doing.”
After their first week and being busy with takeout and delivery, Hoy received a call from Chrissie Bertsch, the General Manager at the Salem Convention Center. Bertsch wanted to partner with Geppetto’s and offer pizza to three of the Convention Center’s business partners each week, naming it Pizza, Partnership and Perseverance. Around the same time, a friend bought a gift card from Geppetto’s to buy food for hospital workers. Calls like that continued to come in, and Hoy estimates the pay-it-forward meals amount to around $3,000. Three weeks earlier, Hoy connected with the Salem Police Department to organize getting some pizzas to patrol crews. Hoy pitched the idea to the Pizza, Partnership and Perseverance partners, and they successfully sent food to five shifts.
“We’re floating a river right now, and we’re all in our boats or rafts. At first you think you’re alone, but then others begin to float around you,” Hoy said. “Then the water that was good gets rough, but because we’re together we’re going to be okay and navigate these waters as a community. And that I feel, is one of the true blessings to come out of this.
“When people talk about [Geppetto’s] as a champion, or anyone else as a champion, we’re able to be open for business. We’ve had to work hard at navigating all of these obstacles and digesting all the information. I realized recently that those who had to close, or haven’t opened yet, are champions in my mind because they had to do the really hard thing. They had to accept that this was not going to work and their doors would close. What they had to do is harder than what I’m doing.”
Vouture Designer Bridal Boutique
The correlation between a prosperous business environment and a thriving community manifests during times of uncertainty. You find that small businesses can have a massive impact on a large community. That is the case for Vien To, a designer in Salem.
To is the owner of Vouture Designer Bridal Boutique in the heart of downtown Salem, nestled between Engelberg Antiks and Archive Coffee & Bar. Walking past, you can’t help but admire the beautiful, handmade bridal dresses and custom-made men’s suits that line the windows.
To made a pivot from making dresses and suits to making masks in a matter of days. In the wake of a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for first responders, she designed and produced over 100 masks to help keep the firefighters of Clark County Fire & Rescue safe during their day to day interactions with people.
“Vien’s mask is more in-depth than the average mask,” said Josh Taylor, a deputy fire marshal in Clark County. “She really thought out the process, taking the extra time to create something not only pragmatic but also comfortable.”
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Rudy’s Steakhouse staff delivering Crisis Meals.
The masks To made provided a slot for small filters to be added to replicate the M-97 masks in short supply. To’s design and eagerness to get this right was so meticulously thought out that she provided varying sizes that would allow for maximum comfort for everyone.
“Vien is the most giving and hard-working person I know,” added Taylor. “She loves her community and as long as I have known her, she has always put helping others above her own needs.”
When asked about the impact this had on his team of first responders, Taylor responded, “You cannot even put it into numbers. It had a major impact on protecting the lives of tens of thousands of people. Vien’s hard work and eagerness to help us in a time of need is something I will never forget.”
Advantage Heating & Cooling
Advantage Heating and Cooling is thinking of the financial impact of their customers who have lost their jobs. They took the bold step of waiving all diagnostic fees in Salem and Keizer.
As an alternative to regular on-site maintenance visits, Advantage Heating & Cooling began offering filter deliveries to their customers.
In partnership with the Salem Dream Center, Advantage Heating collected canned goods, bathroom tissue and other consumables for local families in need. Advantage is offering free safety inspections and filter changes in exchange.
Rudy’s Steakhouse
Restaurants were some of the hardest hit by the virus. The day Rudy’s Steakhouse received their 12-hour notice, the restaurant had also received a substantial amount of product.
Kelly’s Cooking School preparing online content.
$1 Crisis Meals for first responders, medical personnel, and laid off workers daily. While they started off at $1, community support grew quickly After the initial wave of interest in funding Crisis Meals, Rudy’s manager Robbie Kunke made a website and went from dollar meals to offering them for free, which then turned into 80 meal deliveries to hospitals and police stations.
All that, in turn, allowed Rudy’s to utilize their large team of workers to continue to give away free meals. In the end, 40% of the meals (including labor) is paid for by the public, and 60% is funded by Rudy’s Steakhouse with the product they had on hand. All employees laid off were eligible to receive those daily meals as well.
On May 3, Rudy’s served 65 Prime Rib & Chicken Marsala Crisis Meals – bringing the total number of meals served to 5,000.
“We believe If you do things the right way, all things will work out in the end,” Kunke said. “It’s definitely been financially strenuous, and we’re looking to get back up and running – but that’s where it’s been really cool. Regarding the Crisis Meals specifically, we had many people saying how cool the program was and asking how they could help.”
Interested in supporting Crisis Meals? Visit crisismeals. com/rudyssteakhouse to purchase a meal for a frontline health worker, first responder, or unpaid worker. Additionally, Rudy’s has a lower priced menu of 16 items under $16 available to order.
“We realized we needed to change our target audience to meet the potential customers now facing uncertain financial times,” Kunke said.
What Other Businesses Are Doing
Kelly’s Home Center is thinking about families who are looking for productive learning activities during times of isolation from friends, coworkers and classmates. Kelly’s Cooking Center took their weekly cooking classes from
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in-person to virtual on their Facebook page for free. The classes, featuring Bonnie Kelly, Chef Cleora and Chef Matt (from Hoss Soss), are for culinary enthusiasts and the casual foodie, alike.
Many businesses created sponsorship programs that allow other businesses to sponsor coffee or food for first responders in the health industry. Isaac’s Coffee, Wine & Dessert has had many sponsored coffee runs for the ICU nurses at Salem Health. Tracy Belle, Sales Manager of loanDepot sponsored one such delivery.
Jenn Toth of ServPro South serves on multiple fronts during this time – not only as the Marketing Manager, but has been sewing face masks, making hand-sanitizer and delivering those much-needed resources to the community.
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Chef Matt on Kelly’s Cooking School on Facebook.
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Thank you to all of the essential, frontline workers serving Salem-Keizer.
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The Office Depot team at 2945 Liberty Rd. S. is offering free computer diagnostics to ensure working from home is as smooth as possible.
The Statesman Journal and Salem Reporter are offering coronavirus coverage free-of-charge to the public. Salem Health asked for community volunteers to assist in sewing almost 10,000 masks in the wake of the pandemic, and the community answered. With two pick up times at the Town Park security booth (formerly the Kmart parking lot on Mission St.) and in Dallas at the West Valley Hospital parking lot. The community showed up in full force to support, and the Salem station was out of mask kits in the first ten minutes, with volunteer-filled cars lined down the block.
Chamber Resources
In response to this major disruption to our economy, Facebook groups were created by Salem Chamber staff to reroute the demand for food, products and jobs to the known supply. You can join Salem Eats to stay up to date on popular restaurants for dine-in or deliveries. Salem Shops connects products for sale to an eager new market, and Salem Hires connects employers with those looking for work.
The Salem Area Chamber of Commerce has been hard at work to provide resources for the local business community and encourage businesses. The Business Resource Page, updated daily, shares the most relevant and timely updates on local and regional COVID-19 news.
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Visit SalemChamber.org to learn more about SBA Loans, PPP, guidelines for reopening, city, county and state resources and more.
Popular member programs have been reformatted for virtual meetings. Greeters, Salem’s premier networking program, can now be accessed via Facebook Live, and includes a Zoom interface so businesses can connect and recognize other member who go above and beyond in service to their clients and community. The Clark County Fire Rescue Team wearing Vien To’s masks.
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and Chamber Business value to their neighbors. Conveners Women meetings have also moved sew a thread across cities and towns to Zoom for the time being. to bring our community together. Difficult times test business owners The vital relationship between a and their teams’ abilities to change. strong business environment and Champions rise to the top, seeking thriving community is on full display new and innovative ways to bring in Marion and Polk Counties. Soon
we will be back to work, eating in our favorite restaurants and supporting our favorite local retailers. These are bright spots of Salem. 503.
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