The Chamber asked it’s members to share an inspiring and encouraging moment or event that has happened during this global public health crisis. Read on to hear how the Torrance business community is banding together and staying #TorranceStrong…
Oscar Ruiz, Roadium Open Air Market
I would like to acknowledge the generosity, unselfishness and thoughtfulness of The Roadium’s ownership and management with its employees in these difficult times. They have gone above and beyond to provide each and every employee with food packages, plus a food gift card and the blessing of knowing that, when this is all over, we will go back to our normal jobs.
The Roadium has been a blessing to me because they have given me, not only food and a food gift card, but the opportunity to work from home. I hope that for those who have to leave their homes to continue working, I want to send kudos to you, because it is not easy to deal with this pandemic knowing that you are at risk and for those who are lucky enough to be at home or working from home, I ask you to take a moment and pray for all that is happening. My wish is that this pandemic will soon be over so that we can all return to our normal lifestyles.
Terri Nishimura, Pediatric Therapy Network
With the health and safety of children, families, and staff in mind, Pediatric Therapy Network (PTN) made the difficult decision to suspend all in-person services beginning March 16 due to COVID-19. Although PTN therapy clinics and early head start classrooms are closed, the nonprofit is still helping children with special needs, and medical conditions receive therapeutic services and early child development programs that are critical at this time.
Our multi-disciplinary teams have demonstrated ingenuity and creativity, quickly mobilizing to implement alternative ways to ensure continuity of care for our clients. Thanks to previous investments from philanthropic partners, including many TACC members, PTN has been able to migrate its individual and group programs to a telehealth platform and develop relevant and digitally accessible resources for families isolated at home. While families continue to receive diagnoses and grapple daily with a wide range of developmental challenges such as autism, feeding issues, and more, PTN and its dedicated staff remain committed to providing them essential therapeutic services and resources. Please feel free to share these resources with your colleagues, family, and friends as they may also be looking for at-home resources.
A few PTN families shared:
“We miss you all so much!! This is so hard, but we are grateful to our wonderful team who have reached out, and we will start telehealth this week.”
“I love the Brown Bear sing-along video sooooo much!!!!! Miss you all! All of you are such a big blessing in the lives of our babies! May you all be blessed abundantly for all the love and support you give to our babies. PTN will forever be in our hearts.”
“I just wanted to say how wonderful and impressed I was at Jake’s online therapy this week. I really couldn’t see how it would work, but it did, and it was amazing!”
As we provide treatment to vulnerable and medically fragile children with and at-risk for developmental delays and disabilities during this time, PTN must remain responsive to the needs of our community. To do so, we need an influx of unrestricted support that will allow us to not only remain operational, but also to help recover losses and retain our highly trained therapists, teachers, and administrative staff. If you have the means, consider donating funds so PTN can continue to provide critical services remotely that help children live a more fulfilling and independent life.
Mark Applegate, Mark E. Applegate Insurance Agency, Inc.
Last summer I traveled for two weeks across Thailand, Laos & N Vietnam. I’m still in touch via WhatsApp with the 11 other people in the tour group (who live all over the world) and our guide Ronnie who lives in Cambodia. As everyone knows the travel industry has been decimated because of all the travel bans and now stay in place requirements. Needless to say Ronnie is out of work with little prospects for a job during this crisis. He’s even selling some of his household items to help feed his family. Last week behind his back the 12 of us all pitched in $50-$150 each and had the money sent to him. As you can imagine he was surprised and extremely grateful. For the cost of a Kings hockey ticket I could feed his family for probably two weeks. That’s a no brainer. My travel over to Asia was one of the best trips of my life so all of us didn’t think twice about helping this young man who made that trip so special. This Saturday morning we’re all going to have a Zoom meeting so we see Ronnie ‘in person’ and everyone else’s smiling faces.
Tammy Khan, Torrance Unified School District
Created by the Richardson Middle School staff & students: https://youtu.be/hG__jngU7ks
Julie Ling, Aesthetica Medical Spa x Hydription
We, at Hydription had a special event for our Health Heroes in our Torrance Community this past Friday 4/3/2020. We offered all our First Responders Free Vitamin C booster shots. The turn out was outstanding. We were impressed by…
1) They ‘get it’! The first responders who came to receive their booster shot understood the importance of strengthening their immune system. One said, ‘I’m here to biohack my body’.
2) Their stories were amazing to say the least. They shared their fears, their experiences, their observations… they inspired us and humbled us in many ways.
3) Our schedule filled up!
4) We received 4 police officers, about 13 RNs, one SLP (speech pathologist), 2 CNAs, one health care office worker, one Physical Therapist.
Arnold Ng, Apex Commercial Real Estate, Inc.
For the past several weeks I have been calling clients and contacts of mine to see how they are doing during this time of crisis. Many are facing the prospects of not being able to make their rent due to the mandatory closing of their businesses. Just speaking with them as a fellow business owner has been mutually helpful and reassuring. We have been talking about how to speak with landlords about rent abatement or reduction, how to defer expenses with vendors/contractors and strategizing on the fly how to defer expenses and continue to generate some revenues. I have also been trying to deliver relevant value by sending them information on the SBA disaster loan and also paycheck loan to help ease the confusion and lack of control we all feel.
I also offered them reassurance that we will make it through and that we are all together in this. These are familiar words but the best ones that I can offer to them as well. They are the words I need to hear as my industry is disrupted as well. I have been watching the Department of Real Estate website for latest announcements and also monitoring the news and publications relating to commercial/industrial real estate and sending only what is pertinent and relevant to my clients to ease fears and restore some sense of control. We all feel overwhelmed and inundated so what we need the most is reassurance, encouragement and positive information to make the next decision before us.
This challenging time has reminded us of how interdependent we are upon one another for success and livelihood. By reaching out to clients who we have worked with in the past, they know that we simply care about them at this time and we will do what it takes to stand with them to overcome their obstacles.
During one conversation we spoke about our hopes and dreams for our grandkids to grow up and be able to complete their college educations, find a good job and to build their own families, wishing for our nation to be healed from this enemy in order for those dreams to come true. We are all similar in our goals and aspirations for our families to succeed in the future.
We will make it through this challenge as we have overcome adversity before. Any business owner knows what adversity is all about. Let’s continue to remind one another of this. One thing I am working on is to emerge from this an even better resource for my clients with greater focus, even greater conviction and even greater resiliency. These are defining moments and our commitment to our businesses, our families and our clients is even greater. Let us all not give up and continue to fight until we all experience victory.