COVID-19 Response from the Chamber – March 23, 2020
A Message From Our President
Dear Chamber Members and Friends:
We are living through an unprecedented time. I’d be irresponsible if I minimized the seriousness of this situation to our community, state, and nation.
As you know, the County has declared a state of emergency and is discouraging travel into our area. All of the beach accesses on Bogue Banks have been closed, and the state has mandated that restaurants and bars cease serving inside their establishments.
As I write this, a number of states (not ours, yet) have mandated that all nonessential businesses be closed and the National Guard has been called out to help in three of those states. As I said, this is an unprecedented time.
The Carteret County Chamber of Commerce will continue to work for you by communicating any and all relevant information in the most timely manner possible. We are also working with Beaufort Wine & Food to raise funds for restaurant and bar employees who have experienced wage disruption. There is more information about that here. Please consider donating at www.beaufortwineandfood.org.
We also urge you to support local businesses by purchasing take out from restaurants who are serving it, and we will continually update our list of these establishments. We also encourage you to purchase gift cards to use at a later date. These businesses have supported our communities for years, please help them and their employees.
If you have any information you want to share, please let us know by email to Anna@nccoastchamber.com or go our Facebook page and message us.
Let’s follow the guidelines as much as possible. Wash your hands, use hand sanitizer, don’t touch your face, keep a six-foot distance from other people, and if possible, stay home.
Please note that our office remains closed to the public at this time. Staff is still hard at work and can be contacted at the following email addresses:
Tom Kies – Tom@nccoastchamber.com
Julie Naegelen – Julie@nccoastchamber.com
Katie Richards – Katie@nccoastchamber.com
Anna Smith – Anna@nccoastchamber.com
Stay healthy, Carteret County.
Tom Kies
President, Carteret County Chamber of Commerce