What Will Your Story Be?

Editorial Photo
Editorial Photo

There are many great news stories and columns in this week’s Sentinel. We hope you will read them all. When you do, you will see that this issue is all about community.

While it may seem like we are in week 72 of “stay home/stay safe” or “self-quarantining” or “social distancing” or whatever you want to call it, in reality we are in week 7. That is a long time. For some it has been a time of economic uncertainty and an emotional roller coaster. For others it has been a time of innovation and a time to shine.

The front-page story about The First Bank of Greenwich and all they have done to assist local businesses is truly remarkable. They literally helped save over 4,000 local jobs. When the big banks failed to help local small businesses The First Bank of Greenwich stepped in and had 100 percent of the loan applications approved. Wow!

There are countless other stories of organizations rising to the occasion to help others; Neighbor-to-Neighbor, Red Cross, even individuals who purchased face masks and then willingly donated them to first responders. Thank you to you who are known and unknown. Our community has come together in large ways and small to ensure no-one is left behind, no-one is hungry. It is heartfelt and remarkable.

With Governor Lamont allowing Phase One of the reopening of Connecticut to begin on May 20, we are beginning to see the end slowly come into focus. This is exciting! Have you scheduled your hair appointment yet?

For many this also coincides with their receiving stimulus money from the federal government and the state government. This is an opportunity to do some good with that money. Shop local and support the businesses hardest hit by this pandemic.

It has been reported that Jeff Bezos is on track to become the world’s first trillionaire, in part because of all the business Amazon has done recently. We do not fault him for that, but instead of buying a book from Amazon, how about buying one from Dogwood Bookstore or Diane’s Books. I am sure they would greatly appreciate the gesture.

In fact, we encourage you to take a look at all our amazing advertising partners in the Sentinel. They are all local heroes who understand that to support the local economy you have to spend money in the local economy. We are so very grateful to each and every one of them and wish them continued success. They have been there for us and we will be there for them.

We are coming out of an unprecedented time. Never before has our community and state shut down, for the most part, for seven-soon-to-be eight weeks. The panic and excessive toilet paper purchasing has subsided and been replaced with a tired monotony of zoom meetings and watching the birds at the bird feeder. Opening up our community and state will also be unprecedented.

Certainly, as we begin to open, there will be things that are never to return to how they were before. With so many people working from home, it will be interesting to see how corporate America returns to big office buildings. We suspect the local businesses that have weathered this storm will be stronger for it. We certainly hope so.

We wanted to give a shout-out to another advertiser. Not because they advertise, but because of what they have also done during this pandemic. Here is why.

We all know that the hardest hit, besides those that lost loved ones, are the doctors, nurses, cleaning staff and everyone at Greenwich Hospital. Fabricare, a dry cleaning and home care cleaning service in Norwalk that services Greenwich, has offered medical personnel free laundry service with pick-up and delivery include. That is a most generous offer.

When this pandemic is long over, we will hear many stories of heroes large and small. What will your story be? What will you look back on and think, “This is what I did to help my community.”

Related Posts
Loading...