29th Annual Peter Kirk
On Monday, July 24th at Echo Falls Golf Club, the Kirkland Chamber hosted the 29th Annual Peter Kirk Golf Classic. Congratulations to our insurance broker, Brandon Stone from Parker Smith and Feek and team PSF for winning the annual tournament - pictures below!
A great maritime turn-out to support the Kirkland Chamber and the businesses that call Kirkland home.
The tournament is one of the largest fundraisers for the Greater Kirkland Chamber of Commerce, and all contributions help support the efforts and programs the Chamber provides for area businesses, including direct marketing initiatives, public policy, legislation, and cultivating programs that help our small business thrive.
Fishermen’s Finest General Manager and Kirkland Chamber of Commerce President, Kristian Uri addressed the crowd at the awards banquet and told of the good work of the Kirkland Chamber.
Kirkland was the original epicenter of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the United States. Our businesses felt the effect of the crisis very early on in the pandemic. The Greater Kirkland Chamber of Commerce and Kirkland Chamber Foundation quickly formed a small business relief fund in 2020 to help struggling businesses that were seeing a drastic reduction in their revenue due to the media coverage surrounding Kirkland. At that point, we had no idea how long this would last, or how widespread the pandemic would be.
The KCC and KCF created and funded a small business relief fund in March 2020, before any other funds, government assistance, or relief grants were even discussed. This first round of funding was $250,000 to be given out to small businesses in Kirkland that had experienced revenue reduction as a result of the virus in the form of unrestricted grants. A second round of an additional nearly $250,000 was crowdsourced by several businesses and individuals and given out to small businesses in the same way. A great deal of care was taken to make the process of receiving grants easy and fair, prioritizing the smallest businesses and nonprofits that were showing the greatest amount of acute revenue reduction.
Our business partners that could afford to help their fellow business owners were instrumental in saving many small businesses. Each of these represents a family that was scared for the future of their livelihood. Everyone came together to support one another through this very difficult time, which showed widespread effects on health and economic stability for us all. We are so grateful for everyone who stepped up to help.
In closing, he said how important the Kirkland Chamber is to Fishermen’s Finest and how grateful they are to support, and have the support of, the KCC. The post below from 2017 says it all…
