Blakley said the Gehlsens are icons of the retail community.
“If I listed everything they contribute to, you guys would be here until midnight,” Blakley said.
Brett Gehslen accepted the award and commended the CDC for the “Gifts of Hope” program that helped provide funds for businesses during the pandemic.
“Last year, in April, my business was down 85%, and without Gifts of Hope I would have been down 95%,” he said.
Gehlsen said Reynold’s is part of a 300-member business group in Minneapolis – and hardly any of those businesses belonged to a chamber with a program like Gifts of Hope.
“Thanks for the great customer service,” he told Blakley.
Blakley said the idea for Gifts of Hope came about several days after the business shutdown started.
In the program, individuals were encouraged to purchase, and hold, gift cards from local businesses.
Local sponsors added a $10 bonus to each card.
“We had those businesses that were still seeing great revenue step in to help take care of those that were not,” Blakley said.
The population trend has been downward for the local area, but data from the census will not be available until mid-August, Blakley reported; he noted that he didn’t think the census count will be accurate because of the conditions forced on the collection of data by the pandemic.
