 Duda's Aussie Pies launched their #feedahealthcareworker program on March 26, designed to allow Duda's friends and family from all over the globe to support our small business and put big smiles on the faces of some amazing Healthcare workers at St. Charles hospital, in Bend. Bend's incredible healthcare workers are working on the front lines every day, putting their own health at risk for our safety. May we always show gratitude and respect for their selflessness and bravery. They are the real heroes ❤️ Since day one, Duda's Aussie Pies has delivered over 163 delicious Aussie pies to many different departments of St Charles, including the Emergency Room, Family Birthing Unit, Behavioral Health, Medical Floor, Security, Social Services, The PES unit, Patient Access Services, Admitting unit, and more. Lunch is always very well received and it warms our heart to be able to provide this service, now more than ever! "Thank you a million times over! These acts of kindness really inspire our team." From the Duda's Aussie Pies team: Our healthcare workers deserve a medal and while we don’t have any of those, we are happy to take them a yummy pie with chips on your behalf! If you would like to get involved, you can head on over to our website and add the item, “Feed a Healthcare Worker”, to your cart today. A HUGE thank you goes out to our amazing donors this far and to the wonderful, Rachelle Hoole for accepting and distributing our lunches on the front lines. "They were so happy and encouraged by your kindness!!"
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 Now through Wednesday 4.22.20 all profits from the Employee Relief Tee Collection at Revolvr Menswear on Wall Street in Downtown Bend will go directly to the Revolvr employees that were temporarily laid off due to the COVID-19 store closures. These tees are purchased on a pre-order basis, so please allow 7-10 business days for your order to arrive. By purchasing a tee from this collection, you are also helping us support our small, independent vendors that have also been hard hit by the store closures, since almost all shops have cancelled their incoming orders or put them on hold. Thanks for your support! The Revolvr team looks forward to opening their doors again soon! *Due to the donation nature of this collection, tees in this collection do not qualify for the 20% off discount  We all know and love Deschutes Beer, and the Bend Public House has long been one of the most popular destinations in Downtown Bend. Right now, one of the most important things we can do is support our local Bend busiensses. There are a few ways that you can do that while enjoying Deschutes damn tasty beer! Not surprisingly, Deschutes beer sales are down due to restaurant & bar closures across Oregon and beyond. However, there is still plenty of Deschutes Brewery beer available out there. You can find out which grocery and convenient stores are selling Deschutes beer in your area using their online beer finder. BEER PICKUPS: In addition, they are doing safe beer pickup at our Bend Tasting Room!. You can even purchase small batch beers not available in stores as well as 5-gallon kegs. Here’s how it works:
Buy a 6-pack for a health care professional!
 I hope that you are all hanging in there.
In case you missed it, here is information on the most current news from Kate Brown on the plan to reopen Oregon, and here an update on the SBA small business loans. We also have a plethora of websites aimed at helping local businesses get much-needed customers, SOS Bend just launched this week, Visit Bend created this page, KTVZ created this page, there is a new charity-based website for Bend businesses here, and our own downtownbend.org is almost completely updated with the new “Downtown Online” pages. For staying connected, I recommend tuning into Bend Chamber’s weekly webinar (click here to view last week's), Matt Hand’s Show up Central Oregon is also tackling a lot of great issues, Let's Keep Connected has some valuable content, and you can view updates from Governer Brown here, and sign up for updates from Jeff Merkely and Representative Helt. In addition, check out: Good News from Downtown Bend Our Favorite Product ThisWeek & our We’re Open in Downtown YouTube video Last week our Board of Directors voted to defer EID payments for 90 days. So the City will send out the annual EID bill, as usual, in May - but building owners will be able to delay their payment without a penalty. The Board also voted to extend all Downtown directory kiosk ads for an additional 6 months at no extra charge and to suspend billing until September. Right now, we have cut all non-essential staff and programs (to save money for whatever the future may hold), and with the remaining 1.5 FTE we've adjusted our focus to concentrate on marketing, and helping the public know what businesses are still open & how they can shop and dine with them. We are also working with businesses one-on-one to help them adjust their business models to offer online services, and in some cases, we're helping them get their stores online. Let us know if you need individual assistance. Additionally, of course, we still have Ryan on the street every morning cleaning and checking for safety issues (Thank you, Ryan!). As soon as this has passed, we'll be ready to bring all staff back to full-time and hit the ground running to make sure that Downtown Bend is as unique and vibrant as it was before this crisis hit. Finally, we are accepting applications for new board members. You can find all the information and the application by clicking here. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if I can be of any assistance. Stay well & stay hopeful, Mindy Aisling Executive Director Downtown Bend Business Association (DBBA)  We LOVE all of the heartwarming stories from our Downtown Bend community. Today we'd like to share a story with you about a passionate employee at Leapin' Lizards Toy Company. This completely wonderful human being is named Phia, and shortly after the COVID19 pandemic hit us all, she found a way to help Downtown Bend business while also raising much-needed funds for our local nonprofits. Thrive and help thrive, indeed, dear Phia, we applaud you. And so, Support Bend Business was born. A website that encourages people to shop local, and encourages businesses to give 10% of their profits to local organizations like Bethlehem Inn. Currently featuring businesses like Oregon Body and Bath, Princess Athletics, LARK Mountain Modern and Outside In - this project is sure to be a success. Thank you Phia, and all the participating businesses and customers. It sure does feel good to live in a town where kindness and good news is easy to find. Some inspiring words from the Support Bend Business website:  As we end week 5 of quarantine, we are so grateful for all of our merchants that are still working day in and day out to bring us delicious foods, great coffee and awesome shopping experiences. This week, our favorite product in Downtown Bend is the Chill the F*ck Out bar glass available at Jubeelee for $14.95. As you can see by the image below, this really is the only glass you need while you are stuck in your house. While you're at it - we highly recommend perusing all of their online store and we guarantee that you will find more things that you can't live without.  |
