San Anselmo, Larkspur virus aid helps struggling businesses
Before the coronavirus lockdown in March, Everviolet owner Keira Kotler relied on pop-up events at hospitals and other medical clinics to sell her lingerie and loungewear line designed for breast cancer survivors as well as women facing other medical challenges.
With those events have been eliminated by the virus restrictions, the San Anselmo shop has pivoted to a direct-to-consumer approach and added face coverings to its list of products.
“This extra cash infusion is going to go straight to our mask manufacturing,” Kotler said. “I’m just so blown away by San Anselmo and the way they’ve supported business owners since COVID started. They even made us a custom sign.”
With the help of hundreds of donors, local chambers of commerce are coming to the aid of small businesses suffering from the COVID-19 economic slowdown.
The San Anselmo Chamber of Commerce has raised nearly $82,000 for a recovery fund that will be distributed in the form of $1,000 grants, with the remaining funds financing a marketing campaign. San Anselmo and the county provided matching donations of $13,000 each while Bank of Marin and US Bank pitched in $2,500 apiece.
“We’ve been impacted like everyone else, but our downtown has many hair salons and they’re still closed,” said Benedetto Cico, who worked with Creekside Pizza owner Pat Townsley to organize the fundraiser. “Many of our merchants are still closed.”
The Larkspur Chamber of Commerce has also distributed checks worth $1,460 each to 33 brick-and-mortar stores struggling to pay their bills during the pandemic. The Larkspur Community Foundation, Bon Air and Woodlands Market were among the major donors to the $51,000 fund.
“They’re all just hanging on by their fingernails praying that this will pass soon and business will pick back up again,” said Julie Cervetto, executive director of the Larkspur Chamber of Commerce. “They have rent to pay, bills to pay and some are thinking of shutting down altogether.”
In Larkspur, Folio owner Alexandra Beritzhoff hadn’t taken more than a week off from work in her entire career before her stationery store was shut down for two months. Larkspur’s $1,460 boost went a long way toward Folio’s general expenses like rent and utilities.
Even now that Folio has reopened, much of the foot traffic that once drove sales has disappeared. To make matters worse, Beritzhoff’s popular wedding invitations have been virtually wiped out by event cancellations.
“In order for me to survive, I had to set up e-commerce online,” Beritzhoff said. “I was having my son drive around all my orders throughout the county. It was like, what can I do to get some income?”