The Concord Spirit that Paved the Way to Spring
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Concord Together volunteers pick a winner in a shopping passport event. Pictured here (left to right): Marie Foley, Beth Williams, Stephen Crane, Sharon Spaulding, and Jennifer Schünemann
BY JENNIFER C. SCHÜNEMANN
The COVID pandemic strained communities around the globe, and Concord was no exception. We watched as friends and neighbors struggled with loss, illness, and financial crisis. We lost friends and loved ones of our own. And in our beautiful town, we saw shops and restaurants that had been a part of the town’s fabric for decades shutter their doors forever. The call for help was loud and clear. Many answered that call. In the same spirit that sparked the formation of the Minutemen in the 1700s, residents all around Concord jumped to action. High school students did everything from raising funds for local charities, to writing cards to lonely older citizens cut off from their families at care facilities, to helping shop keepers connect online with people staying at home. Restaurants cooked thousands of meals to support health care professionals working around the clock to care for the sick (and citizens rallied to fund that effort).
Courtesy of Concord Together
Concord Together formed, led by Sharon Spaulding and John Boynton. They created a group of more than 20 business leaders and volunteers (including Town leadership) who have met every single week for a full year to create awareness and events to keep the shops and restaurants top of mind for residents. These efforts and so many others have not only made a difference; they have given hope to the merchants who are trying every day to weather the storm. The Town of Concord and its various committees jumped in as well — helping businesses get access to PPE, fasttracking outdoor dining for restaurants, making outdoor heaters and air filters more affordable for merchants trying to protect their clients, suspending parking meter charges for more than half a year, reimbursing partial license fees for restaurants, establishing a dedicated liaison to help businesses identify — and apply for — grants and loans to keep them going, sponsoring a drive-in movie for families eager to have a fun night out, and
showing up every single week to collaborate with Concord Together. Discover Concord did all we could think of to help. We joined Concord Together immediately and leveraged our social media network and the pages of the publication to raise awareness. But as the holiday season approached and we realized how pivotal those precious weeks would be to helping the recovery, we felt we had to do more. Then we had an idea…perhaps the best way to support our fellow small businesses in Concord (in an environment where so many were staying at home) was simply to bring the businesses into the households where our fellow Concordians were sheltering in place. Something akin to the old Sears and Roebucks catalogues from holiday seasons past. We didn’t have a lot of time to think it through. We had already lost 8 shops in town and more were struggling. The holiday season would literally be “make or break” for many. We had to act quickly. So we decided to just do it — we were going to pull together, photograph, and write about more than 100 local businesses and more than 25 local nonprofits. We were going to produce and print 12,000 continued on pg. 72
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Discover CONCORD
| Spring 2021
