Wrangell has proven its boundless resilience, compassion and generosity the past two weeks. Individuals have donated, volunteered, hauled, organized and pitched in seemingly 24 hours a day since the deadly landslide tested the community’s faith and took over everyone’s emotions.
And it wasn’t only individuals helping out. Just about every business on the island donated services, goods or money. Whether food for first responders and volunteers, groceries for families, temporary housing for people displaced by the slide, taxi rides, airplane tickets and more, business owners did not ask and did not hesitate, they just met the need.
It’s a reminder of how important a strong, local business community is to the town. It’s a reminder that shopping locally is part of what holds Wrangell together.
Front Street merchants — and those not on the main street — are in the business of providing a living for their owners and their employees. They also are in business of providing for the community in times of need. Whether during a natural disaster, or something happier like raising money to send a school sports team to a tournament, Wrangell needs its business community just as much as it needs individual volunteers.
The Alaska Small Business Development Center reported last month that for every dollar spent at an Alaskan-owned business, on average 63 cents stays in the state, paying for wages, rent, utilities, supplies and more. A report from the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development calculated that if every resident shifted $1,000 in spending from non-local to local businesses, it would add an estimated $103 million to the state’s economy. It could create about 5,800 new jobs.
The help the past two weeks from Wrangell businesses is a good example of the importance of local stores and shops. Without their generosity, a lot of the town’s needs in the aftermath of the slide would have gone unmet.
It’s something to think about as people take pride in the community’s response to the tragedy — and as people make their holiday shopping lists. That money truly does stay in Wrangell, benefiting the entire town.
— Wrangell Sentinel
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