This week I want to share a story and a call to help someone who needs it and is very uncomfortable with it.
Almost five years ago, the terrible thing happened that caused people to stay home and stay away from each other. It was a bad, sad time and so much damage was caused in so many ways. I will not get into the whys and whats except that it caused many businesses to flounder and some did not survive.
The town where I live is a river town and we have many shops and restaurants along the main street that are locally-owned. One of those small businesses is a restaurant called Urban Olive & Vine and is owned and operated by a husband and wife team named Chad and Carol Trainor. They serve amazing food and have great staff and as we all learned during 2020 and beyond, they have a heart for supporting the community of Hudson and the people in it.
In addition to cooking and serving great food and coffee, they also provide space for retail sales of locally made products and host painting classes for a local artist and so much more. They have given me the opportunity to share my essential oils there and most of the business community here networks at Urban; its definitely the place to be. All of this is wonderful and supports the community and during those not-so-great times, we learned how much Chad and Carol really believe in our community.
During a time when businesses were in danger of closing-especially restaurants-a person would think a business owner would spend his or her time on their own business and how they could highlight themselves to keep the doors open. But that's not what Chad did.
Chad took it upon himself to feature other restaurants and businesses in Hudson on his social media pages to make sure we all knew how to help them. Chad eats out a lot and takes a lot of pictures of his food so he can share and that's one of the things that he did. Every time he shared a photo of his and Carol's meals, he tagged the restaurant and promoted them to remind us all that they need help. He told the community how to help by ordering online or simply reminding us that they were still in business and we should order food. It sounds simple; promote other businesses when they are struggling too. It was a selfless act during a time when many of us were confused and frustrated and very scared.
Earlier this year, Carol started having some serious health issues. She is very private and details have not been shared beyond knowing that now, over 3 months later, she is in the ICU and her medical staff does not know why she is so sick. What we do know is that Urban is struggling. Because Chad needs to be at Carol's side, they have needed to close or cut hours which of course means less income for them and their staff. And speaking of staff, they hire high school-aged kids who have been running the place expertly through all of this along with the adult staff who are amazing as well. They currently have 22 high schoolers with 6 of them being homeschooled.
When people have reached out to Chad to ask what we can do to help, myself included, he would tell us to just keep going to Urban and ask others to do the same. As it became more evident that this was going to be a long term situation as no answers were being found, more people wanted to help in whatever way they could.
Another local business owner decided to start a GoFundMe account for Chad and Carol and they also held a fundraiser before Christmas to raise more money for mounting hospital bills. Plans are in the works for more fundraising too. The community wants to help and dollars are what they need along with prayers. The GoFundMe has been very well-received with a lot of donations but as we all know, the turn of the calendar year means deductibles go down to zero. Healthcare is expensive and ICU care can be catastrophic.
Chad and Carol are good people; I hope you can see that through this blog post if you do not know them. I went to high school with Carol and know how kind and quiet she is and she has the best sense of humor. I have been able to get to know Chad a bit through business and enjoying his culinary creations and social media presence. Like many of us, Chad does not like to ask for and accept help and he is very uncomfortable with all of this attention. Sometimes you need other people to step in and return the favor. So I am asking for help on their behalf from any of you reading this.
My ask today is for you to consider donating. Any amount is helpful and so appreciated. If you cannot donate money, they would also greatly appreciate prayers, positive thoughts and energy.
The link to donate can be found HERE.
THANK YOU!
Take care of your beautiful self.
~Kim~