{"id":26412,"date":"2020-04-23T17:36:17","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T21:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26412"},"modified":"2020-04-30T14:21:27","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T18:21:27","slug":"chamber-town-look-at-bridge-to-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/chamber-town-look-at-bridge-to-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Chamber, Town look at \u201cBridge to the Future\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Aurora Chamber of Commerce, the Town of Aurora, and\nlocal business leaders are developing strategies to support local businesses\nthrough these difficult times and prepare for the gradual return of business\nopenings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, the Aurora Chamber of Commerce will launch a\nnew program dubbed \u201cA Bridge to the Future\u201d which will look at how businesses\ncan make ends meet as we wait for a return to normalcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a task force, we\u2019re looking at what more we can do\nfor our businesses, what are the issues that our businesses are facing and\nwe\u2019re trying to see what we can do to support them in any way,\u201d says Sandra\nFerri, President & CEO of the Aurora Chamber of Commerce. \u201cIn terms of the\nrent situation, we have reached out to both the tenants and the landlords to\nhave them work together to try and come to a solution and we\u2019re looking at the\nBridge to the Future program to bring together a panel of experts to talk about\nscenarios our businesses are experiencing now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will have a lawyer, an accountant and a financial\nplanning expert on the panel, and insolvency professionals, who can provide\nsome insight into what supports are out there for these businesses that are\nstruggling. The idea behind Bridge to the Future is to help our businesses be\nthere when this is all over. It is important now that we help them find\nstrategies to keep their businesses going through this time so there is a\nbrighter future ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such initiative already being spearheaded by the\nChamber to ensure local businesses can count on returning customers once this\nis all over is a new gift certificate program facilitated by Fan Saves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program is designed to support local businesses that\nhave been temporarily forced to close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once a gift certificate is purchased online through the\nFanSaves Helps website (fansaveshelps.ca\/collections\/aurora-chamber-of-commerce),\nthe purchaser will receive a digital gift certificate with the proceeds of each\nsale transferred directly to the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once doors re-open, buyers can print out their gift\ncertificates and bring them to their favourite local businesses for products\nand services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe set up the Shop from Home Aurora website for the\nbusinesses that still had goods and services they were offering during the\npandemic, and then we felt we needed to do something for the businesses that\nactually had to shut their doors and weren\u2019t able to provide services or\nproducts,\u201d explains Ms. Ferri. \u201cThis is a way for our community to buy gift\ncertificates where the money goes directly into the company\u2019s bank account now\nfor future goods and services, hoping it will help them pay their bills over\nthis period and then be there when everything goes back to normal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an opportunity for people who love their stores\nin Town to offer them some support at a time when they do not have customers\ncoming through the door. It is a way to make sure that business is still there\nwhen all of us go back to shopping and they will still have the stores they\nlove as part of Aurora. It gives the businesses an infusion of cash to help pay\ntheir bills. The feedback has been good. We have had quite a few businesses\nsign up for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participating businesses so far include Air Riderz\nAdventure Park, Aurora Athletic Club, Bent Ridge Winery, Bent Nail Brewery,\nBest Climate Heating & Cooling, Drummer\u2019s Hangout, Eco Choice Windows &\nDoors, Fast Signs Newmarket, Fraktals Chocolate, Kroma Salon, Kumon Math &\nReading Centre of Aurora, Living Assistance Services, Locale Restaurant, Lori\nPedersen Home Staging + Styling, Lynteriors, M2 Services Group, Maple Teahouse\n& Bake Shop, Omars Shoes, Spar-Clean, Spine Stretch Studio, TapAlly, the Yoga\nNest, VR Impulse, and Warner Roofing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is really important that we all support our local businesses in any way we can,\u201d says Ms. Ferri. \u201cWhether that is going to the local ShopFromHomeAurora.ca website or purchasing goods from our local vendors where possible, instead of going to the Big Box stores, or whether it is buying a gift certificate for a store that has had to close down completely, I think whatever we can do as a community to help these businesses get through the next month or two would be very much appreciated by our businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Aurora Chamber of Commerce, the Town of Aurora, and local business leaders are developing strategies to support local businesses through these difficult times and prepare for the gradual return of business openings. This week, the Aurora Chamber of Commerce will launch a new program dubbed \u201cA Bridge to the Future\u201d which will look at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6S0","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 11:52:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}