Central Adirondack COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund: Helping Neighbors and Businesses

“Give local, help locals, and support local businesses. That sums up this fund’s objectives, and it is what is different about it as opposed to other aid programs.”

— Deb Carhart, CAp-21 (quoted in Adirondack Express)

CADK COVID-19 Relief Fund

Like most tourism-dependent communities, the Central Adirondacks struggled during COVID. When visitors dropped off, the ripple effects were felt throughout the community.

Old Forge Restaurants

Old Forge’s Main Street is packed with restaurants, gift shops, galleries and many other businesses that cater mainly to visitors and tourists. When COVID-19 shut down tourism, many were also forced to close or reduce hours.

Old Forge Dept. Store

Other businesses offered critical products and services for year-round residents and stayed open, but struggled with loss of income.

Gallery 3040

Community members — like Paula Weal of Gallery 3040 — stepped up to find a way to help both people and businesses in the community.

Old Forge Library

Community members teamed up with organizations that could help manage and set up a relief fund. CAP-21 served as a host organization for the fund. The Old Forge Library offered direct community connections to many people in need. Many area businesses, nonprofits and charities donated funding.

COVID Relief Fund Donations

The fund thrived in part by connecting with generous donors who were new to the area, or moved there full time during COVID, and could afford to give. The Relief Fund closed in 2021, after meeting its goals and the identified needs in the community.

Where: Central Adirondacks (based in Old Forge)

What: COVID-19 relief fund, offering emergency financial assistance to people

The COVID relief fund was a temporary cash fund supported by community donations. It helps people with emergency financial needs due to lost income and business closures. Anyone who lost income was eligible to apply, and a group of volunteer screeners reviewed the applications. The fund was designed in a creative way that ensures another major benefit: it set up accounts for recipients at local businesses so they could purchase needed goods and supplies, which also supports the businesses.

Why: Address urgent needs resulting from COVID-19 business and job losses, while supporting existing local businesses

COVID-19 was particularly devastating to places like the Adirondacks, where a tourism-based economy meant months of business closures and job losses. At the same time, many wealthier seasonal visitors and part-time residents moved to the region full-time and wanted to help. The Central Adirondack COVID-19 Emergency Fund found a way to creatively harness the generosity and donations of community members to address urgent needs.

When COVID-19 shut down tourism in 2020, that also meant months of closures or reduced revenues for area restaurants, lodging and tourism businesses — and unemployment for the area workforce. Community leaders started seeing financial needs immediately, and also saw people stepping up to donate. A team of local volunteers and CAP-21 created a simple, confidential system for accepting donations and funding requests and quickly distributing money to people who needed it.

With businesses hurting from reduced tourist spending, the fund also made sure that the donations went straight back into the local economy. While many relief funds simply offer cash, this fund set up accounts with local businesses so that recipients could buy groceries, supplies or other needs directly from their neighbors. When the fund met its goals, it awarded remaining funding to area nonprofits.

The fund was not just about relief — it was also an investment in long-term recovery, for the Adirondacks and all of Herkimer County. Helping local businesses and employees was a way to ensure that they would survive and still be there when COVID-19 let up and tourism could restart. And that is essential to ensuring that the local economy can rebound, along with the major tax revenue it provides the whole county.

More:

• Read more — check out the full story in the Adirondack Express article, “CAP-21 and Community members Create Central Adirondack COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund”

• Explore examples — many communities and regions have community relief funds, whether during COVID or all the time. Check out some other models.

  • Six Town Community Fund (Watertown, NY area COVID-19 relief fund)

  • Rebuild Rochester Foundation (Rochester, VT hurricane-relief fund evolved into long-term community fund supporting residents’ urgent needs)

  • New Haven Basic Needs Fund (distinct fund at the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, set up to support ongoing basic needs)

Get inspired:

• Start a community relief fund — COVID-19 isn’t over yet, and people will always need help, whether there’s a pandemic or not. Start a community relief fund in your town to help people with needs whenever they arise.

• Connect with donors — Many new residents have moved to upstate during the pandemic, and many are eager to connect with their new communities. It’s a great time to reach out to new residents and ask them to get involved or give to local causes.