FROM THE OFFICE OF GROW WABASH COUNTY
The New Normal
BY KEITH GILLENWATER President and CEO Grow Wabash County
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T
he unprecedented changes brought on by COVID-19 these past few months bring to mind a great many clichés about “best laid plans” and “when it rains it pours.” Wabash County, like most of the country was all but blindsided by the coronavirus and the resulting restrictions that found us withdrawing to our homes, canceling large get togethers, reducing business hours or even closing all together. But, true to form, Wabash County did not stop. We adapted overnight to what has been labeled “the new normal.” Restaurants transitioned their staff over to curbside pick-up and even delivery service at a moment’s notice to keep their customers fed and healthy. Stores that specialize in the in-store experience found ways to bring that appeal to the internet, building a whole new network of customers along the way. Business owners and volunteers made masks for our front-line workers, never letting those essential employees forget that they are the heroes of this story. Employers that may have had the difficult decision to reduce staff have stepped up to care for their employees in other ways, paying for groceries or extending benefits packages for laid-off workers, with a hopeful understanding that this is not permanent. While our business community stood resolute in the face of the challenge, proving that not even a pandemic was going to shut them down, Grow Wabash County has been working double-time behind the scenes to make sure that those
businesses were supported and prep red for whatever comes next. Right from the beginning, Grow Wabash County sprang into action, sending out surveys and compiling data about how hard this pandemic would and did hit our businesses and what we could do to help. Within days, Grow Wabash County had launched its Rapid Response loan program to help businesses bridge the gap during this slowto-no revenue time. We connected with partners like Duke Energy, the City of Wabash, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) and the Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) to score hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant or low-interest loan funding for Wabash County that was distributed out to businesses in record time to help them retain jobs, expand their marketing reach or just keep their doors open until they could operate at full capacity again. We are not out of this fight yet, Wabash County, but I leave with you with this final cliché: This too shall pass. We will still be feeling the reverberations of this pandemic long after the quarantine has lifted, but the muscle memory of what we used to do is already coming back to us. We will hit our stride and once again be the resilient, vibrant county that we all have been proud to call home. And of course, Grow Wabash County will still proudly uphold our commitments to our investors and the business community by providing them with the tools and resources that they need to succeed. Stay safe and stay strong, Wabash County. We’re all rooting for you.
WABASH BUSINESS JOURNAL / SUMMER 2020
