Be Bold! Be Responsible! Shop Local!
I am so proud of our members and our community for the support they have shown to Investigator Mario Herrera and his family. There have been so many amazing tributes—from signs going up around town to the different shows of support with flags and lining the streets when he was brought home from Omaha and on the day of his funeral. These are times which make me even more proud to be a member of this great community. I was so proud of our LIBA members who donated over $8,300 in gift cards and cash for the Herrera family. The Chief of Lincoln Police Department and several officers were so humbled by the generosity of our members. We cannot thank our members enough for their generosity and support. There are several other programs in the works to continually show our support for law enforcement and first responders.
Over the course of the past several weeks, our team at LIBA has been working on programs and ideas which we believe will be ways we can help businesses across our community to help them through this difficult time. In the upcoming weeks, we will be helping feature businesses across the community to encourage everyone to be out supporting local business.
In meetings regularly, I hear business owners asking how we get people to get out and support our local businesses. During the past six months, consumer confidence has dwindled, partially because of the constant message to stay home. In order to help our businesses across all industries, we need to be bold, be responsible, and shop local. Our local businesses are the ones who are employing our friends and neighbors. The local business owners are those who are contributing to our local charities to help raise money for our events. The local business owners are the ones who are supporting our local youth sports programs and teams. We must get out and support these businesses across our community. All industries are in need of our help.
I ask you to please consider taking time to be bold, be responsible, and get out and support our local businesses. Let’s all commit to making it our mission to take extra time to visit local shops, make sure we are focused on supporting the shops in our neighborhoods. If we all take time to do just a little extra every week, we will make an impact on our local economy and help those businesses stay open. We need these businesses for the short and long term future of our city. Then, ask a friend to do the same. One day at a time, one person at a time, one business at a time, we can help our businesses recover.
Recently, we received some bitter sweet news regarding Husker Football. Yes, the Big Red will be playing this fall. However, the Big 10 Conference made the determination that fans will not be allowed in the stands. I am happy for the student-athletes who have been back for months; training and doing all the things they were asked in order to play. In the midst of the great news for the student-athletes, I continue to receive word of businesses in our community that have already closed or that are going to be closing in the very near future. We all are going to play a role in our community’s recovery and we all are going to need to ‘step up our game’ so to speak to help each other out. Exhaust each and every option before clicking that “proceed to checkout” button online. Let us band together to support our local businesses. Remember, these small, local businesses are the ones who are there for our community when we need them most—they are employing our friends and neighbors, supporting our local charities, sponsoring youth activities, and are the ones who will help you out when you are in a bind. Now they are in a bind, and we must stand up and do our part to help them out.
LIBA studies and promotes these types of issues that are important to businesses and our community. If you have an interest in joining, please call LIBA at (402) 466-3419. LIBA membership is not restricted to just businesses. We also have “individual” memberships for those who want to help influence our local government decisions.