NEWPORT – Springtime is when the City by the Sea gets out of its winter slumber.
It’s not long after the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade when flocks of tourists, both local and beyond, start dining at the various restaurants and visit notable locations throughout Newport and Aquidneck Island as a whole during the warmer months.
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But when the COVID-19 pandemic that gripped the world started to get its hands on Rhode Island, the impact on Newport was immediate and significant.
“It was kind of shocking that first week things really ramped up, when stores started closing,” said Leslie Hogan, co-owner and broker for real estate agency Hogan Associates. “Then the restaurants started closing. My daughter works at the Black Pearl and they really tried to stay open and just couldn’t anymore. Then, normally after the St. [Patrick’s] Day parade, [businesses] start getting income again and it’s like a lifeline. That rug was pulled out from under them this year with COVID-19.
“It’s just devastating for so many people around here. There’s so many hotels and so many people that those hotels support and they’re all hurting.”
Hogan said she recently watched a PBS special on the March of Dimes, a nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies, and became inspired by it. So, Hogan along with co-owner Matt Hadfield started brainstorming on how the firm and its 38 agents could help the community.
The brainstorming morphed into Hogan Associates launching the 1 MORE HELPING challenge, a social movement where the agents are pledging to help neighbors and friends in the Newport area who are facing hardships due to the pandemic. Hadfield said all of its agents have pledged to accept the challenge and donate what they can to assist.
Initiatives for the project include ordering take-out meals for families in need, donating funds to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center or other nonprofits offering food assistance, purchasing restaurant gift certificates, or buying a $25 “Bucket of Love” dinner at Winner Winner that will help feed a needy family of four.
The firm is hoping its initiative goes viral and have more people around the community join the cause. Hogan and Hadfield are asking the agents who do help post their actions on social media with the hashtag #1morehelping, and challenge two other people to perform the same deed.
The agency’s co-owners hope this initiative can both take on a life of its own and offer the community needed help through the crisis.
“If more people could do something kind than they would have ordinarily, or give a little bit of money, it can redistribute to some of the resources around here and maybe make a difference,” Hogan said.
“The coronavirus is a viral thing for the bad. We’re trying to do a viral thing for the good,” Hadfield said.
Providence Business News is spotlighting nonprofits, companies and workers stepping up to challenges presented by the spread of the new coronavirus.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
