We often hear about those community coming-together stories in which a group of people gather around a person, family or a group in need of help.
They’re those “good news” stories that we tell more than most of our readers realize. You know, someone gets ill or injured and their hometown raises a bunch of money for their medical bills.
It’s been a full month since the impact of the coronavirus slammed Mitchell and our region, and we wonder how large of an impact this pandemic will have once when all is said and finished. We’ve all been affected.
And it’s easy to look at your own situation and wonder if you have it worse than the next person.
Whether your business has been closed, you missed out on your senior prom or your hours have been cut at work, it’s easy to compare the struggles of life right now.
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Just consider the record-setting data. According to the most recent report available, a total of 6,152 unemployment claims were filed with the state Department of Labor and Regulation from April 5-11. Typically, the state sees about 150 such filings per week, Gov. Kristi Noem said.
When times are tough, it’s certainly important to protect your own financial well-being during difficult times like what we’re dealing with now. We also all need to remember ways to support our community. Even the smallest assistance goes a long way right now.
Since the beginning of last week, the federal government has been issuing stimulus money, with most individuals getting $1,200. A family of four with two working adults and two children likely received $3,400. We hope even a small percentage of that, or whatever is affordable, is spent locally.
Go to the corner candy and ice cream shop and treat your kids who’ve been working so hard on their stay-at-homework. Order a takeout dinner (leave a generous tip) and have a date night with your significant other. Gift cards or gift certificates are a popular idea to help businesses with your purchase now and promise your business later. Or, selfishly, we say subscribe to your local newspaper — even if it’s just the online version — we really appreciate it.
Businesses are struggling right now. But we’ve seen some really interesting entrepreneurial efforts to adjust to the conditions we’re living in. Kudos to those places, as they’re the ones that will survive the strongest moving forward.
So now’s the time to come together as a community for the community. So often in South Dakota we see and hear about the great people helping in times of need. The pandemic is impacting everyone — so now may be the most important time we’ve ever seen to think about the community.
