By Ian C.
We’ve all seen the advertising campaigns and social media posts about “Supporting Local,” and if there is one thing the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us, local businesses need our support now more than ever, when companies like Amazon make it easy to get your holiday shopping done in one place and literally delivered to your door a few days later.
Recently, our friends at the Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, and Muskoka Lakes Chambers teamed up to create a “Found it in Muskoka” campaign. “We are pleased to be working with our Chamber members to showcase what they have to offer everyone,” says Brenda Rhodes, Executive Director of the Bracebridge Chamber.
In 2019, our entire organization, under Lakeland Holding, which includes our sister companies Lakeland Power and Bracebridge Generation, was sent out into the local communities to “pay it forward”. Each team was given $250 to give back to the community. Some teams gave their money to charitable organizations, some teams handed out cookies to people on the streets. Other teams not only donated the $250, but also donated some time at a local retirement home.
Another way that we are supporting local is by providing more career opportunities to local people. Since 2019, Lakeland Networks has more than doubled in size, giving more local people the ability to put food on their table, pay their bills, and to shop locally for new vehicles, eat meals at restaurants, do tree-top trekking and axe throwing, obtain season passes to Santa’s Village, plus so much more.
We all know how easy it is to shop online, but at the end of the day supporting your local businesses can have a huge impact on your community and the people that live within them. Please take this into consideration before you press “Add to cart”.