Your Favorite Business

Needs YOU To Survive

Sure, local governments and school districts can close their doors and send thousands of employees home Friday, March 13 – tax revenues will ensure they get paid.

Private enterprise is different. Your favorite diner or restaurant. That lively boutique or gift shop. They need your continuing support – in many cases, to simply survive.

Same goes for local institutions we rely on. The Catskill Symphony Orchestra had to cancel its Cabaret Concert Saturday, March 14, at SUNY’s Dewar Arena. Last year, that concert raised $47,000. Helios Care delayed its March 29 Epicurean Festival to the fall, forgoing $70,000 for now.

Click on the “Coronavirus Cancellations” icon on www.AllOTSEGO.com, and you’ll feel wistful not only about the fun delayed, but the support lost by our many cultural institutions.

If no one’s moving around, buying things or doing things, it won’t be long before our local economy will begin shedding staff. It’s simply addition and subtraction, P&L.

So, as individuals, let’s do what we can. Order takeout from local restaurants. Don’t wait to up your memberships to local institutions and organizations. Stay 6 feet away from the nearest fellow shopper, but don’t abandon local business to amazon.com.

It matters. Even for the longterm health of our schools.