Chatham-Kent is being encouraged to help downtown Chatham and Thamesville businesses affected by the recent flood.
The Rotary Club of Chatham is promoting an initiative called "Flood Our Community With Love" March 9 and 10.
Past President Alysson Storey is asking residents to spend money in both downtown cores that weekend so businesses can start to recover from the disaster quicker.
"There's really no time to waste. When you're a small business, a few days without income is an eternity. So, we wanted to try and help these local businesses as soon as we could with something fun and easy to announce and implement," says Storey.
Storey encourages other groups to help support and raise awareness about this initiative with their own activities or promotions. She says many businesses near the river in Chatham were flooded and lost inventory and need to get back on their feet.
"Our local businesses, especially our small businesses, are the backbone of our community and we don't want to lose them or see them suffer. Some of these businesses not only had to close but they also lost inventory. So, that's a double whammy," she says.
Storey says businesses in downtown Thamesville were not flooded but had their utilities shut off as a precaution and lost several days of income.
"These are relatively geographically small downtowns and each time we lose a business down there it's a tragedy. It's a family that might be out of work and it's employees that are out of jobs," Storey says.