Taking the Leap

Albany’s Spine & Brain Experts

Kimberly Brown, MD is proud to announce the addition of Hector Soriano, MD to the Phoebe Neurosurgery team.

Dr. Soriano specializes in: • neurosurgical spinal surgery • complex spine surgery • robotic spine neurosurgery • minimally invasive brain and spine neurosurgery • brain and spinal tumors • endoscopic and endonasal brain surgery • trigeminal neuralgia • hemifacial spasm • scoliosis

To schedule an appointment, please call 229-432-9515

Phoebe Neurosurgery

2622 Meredyth Drive | Albany, Georgia 31707 229-432-9515

phoebehealth.com

Perhaps at no other point in recent history have people spent more time at home than in the last year. While some essential workers toiled around the clock, other people found themselves working remotely with more free time than usual. Working from home meant more time spent with family, but it also created a need for a safe way to decompress. Eager to escape their own four walls, many turned to outdoor activities as a way to relax in a socially distanced way.

WHETHER NURTURING FLOWERS OR FOOD,

people started rediscovering their own backyards and found gardening to be an escape and a respite during a troubling time. Young people, especially, took an interest in an activity that many had never had the time to try.

Richard Spencer, owner of the landscaping company Garden Path, says he heard from a number of first-time gardeners looking for advice on how to start and what to plant.

“While we didn’t have as much commercial work during the quarantine, we did have a lot of small projects come through,” he says. “I was able to consult with a lot of folks who were wanting to get into gardening and landscaping their property, and do it right. Some of them wanted to do all of the work themselves, while others ordered plants and flowers from us and asked us to help with the planting. We were fortunate that we could continue working because we could be outside.”

At Bennett Feed and Seed, general manager Matt Harrell also saw a surge of interest in backyard vegetable gardening among young people. “Before last year, 90 percent of our gardening clientele were older, but in 2020 we saw a lot of younger people.”

Harrell said that the timing of quarantine created a “perfect storm” for his business. “COVID hit at the beginning of planting season,” he recalled. “People started thinking about how important it was to be self-sustaining. They wanted to learn more about growing their own food, whether that was with a backyard vegetable garden or by raising their own chickens. Thankfully, we had a full inventory and were able to help people get started.”

The challenge this year, he said, will be to stock enough inventory to meet the new demand. Seed companies across the nation are experiencing shortages and shipping delays, and it is difficult find basic building supplies, such as fence posts. Still, Harrell is optimistic about the trend in gardening and what it means for the future.

WHEN PEOPLE BEGAN TO SEARCH FOR ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE THEIR HOMES, OUTDOOR RECREATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES, SUCH AS GOLF, WERE THE PERFECT ANSWER.

Most golf courses only closed down for a brief time at the beginning of the pandemic before reopening with safety guidelines in place. As a result, 2020 turned out to be a great year for the golf industry. According to a study by the National Golf Foundation, U.S. golfers logged 20 percent more rounds in August 2020 than August 2019. That comes on the heels of a 13.9 percent increase in June and a 19.7 percent increase in July, which totals up to a three-month stretch of major growth — and 27 million more rounds played over that period than during the previous year.

Local courses also saw an uptick in play. As they began to venture forth from their homes, members were eager to hit the links.

Rob Allen, director of golf at Stonebridge Golf & Country Club, said that even though the club canceled tournaments, they booked more rounds of individual golf in 2020, while also picking up new memberships and welcoming beginning golfers. The increase in players meant an increase in demand for golf merchandise in the pro shop. The challenge there has been keeping adequate stock to fill demand. With production slowed down, order

Photo courtesy Yamaha Doublegate Country Club also saw an upward trend in numbers of golfers. “After the first month of quarantine, we started to see an explosion of membership participation in both golf and tennis,” said Danny Souza, the club’s general manager. “Doublegate was an oasis for members to get out of the house.”

According to Souza, Doublegate has added nearly 80 new members in the last year, a trend that he credits partially to the public’s increased interest in health and exercise. Members took advantage of tennis, pickleball, and the pool, while the club’s exercise facility and private trainer “have never been busier,” he said.

People also sought out other ways to spend quality family time together, since they could not travel for a vacation. Instead of spending money on airline tickets or cruises, some invested in powersports vehicles, allowing them to ride offroad in the wide-open, socially distant spaces of tracks and trails or to take to the water on personal watercrafts. As a result, powersports companies experienced a surprising sales boom nationwide, and the industry went into high gear, with national manufacturers such as Polaris and Yamaha adding new workers to meet the demand.

PowerSports Plus Albany is an authorized motorcycle, allterrain vehicle, and personal watercraft dealer for Honda, Kawasaki, Polaris, Arctic Cat, Suzuki, Traxxas, and Yamaha. Even though manufacturing production slowed somewhat, making inventory more difficult to stock, PowerSports Plus experienced its best year ever in 2020, said General Manager Grant Belk. While industry data shows that the national market had an influx of new buyers during quarantine, Belk said that the Albany Area statistics looked a little different.

“Because so many people in Southwest Georgia are so outdoors-oriented and already enjoy powersports, we did not see as many first-time buyers as some other parts of the country did,” he siad. “We did see a jump in retail, though, as many (window) shoppers were converted to buyers. They went ahead and made the purchase so that they could enjoy the product right away, rather than thinking about it for a while.”

While some people enjoyed motorized vehicles to cure their cabin fever, others chose to enjoy the great outdoors at a slower pace by exploring the surrounding waterways via canoe or kayak. Kayak Attack owner Josh Lorber said that by adapting his business to meet safety concerns, he is able to report a great year for business, with more rentals than the previous year. Because the company can no longer transport as many people at one time, families now arrive at the launch site in their own vehicles, and Kayak Attack meets them with boats. Shuttling themselves also means shorter wait times for customers. During quarantine, Lorber saw more weekday rentals due to more flexible work and school schedules, and, while many customers were local, some families and friend groups made day trips from Columbus, Macon, and Atlanta. Lorber also said that more online booking and fewer cash transactions cut down on personal interaction.

“THE PANDEMIC COMPLETELY CHANGED THE WAY WE WILL DO BUSINESS FOREVER,” LORBER SAID. “IT WAS SCARY AT FIRST, BUT WE MADE CHANGES QUICKLY, AND PEOPLE RESPONDED. THE KEY TO SURVIVING WAS ADAPTING.”

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