Michael Whitney's new website has a striking image at the top of his home page when you visit www.loveourlocals.ca.
It reads, "Your favourite local restaurant might close forever. Help save North Bay Businesses today."
Where the word "restaurant" sits, other businesses such as gym, museum, mall, cafe, and salon scroll in to create the message that all these local businesses are feeling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The initial message that I have on the website is eye-grabbing," said Whitney.
"People don't really think of the impact of how this pandemic is going to affect them long term and a lot of these small businesses cannot support themselves and their employees without any income or revenue so having this message is eye-catching to the individual going to the website and it gets them thinking how they can support a local business. So why not purchase a gift certificate which you could use now or at a later date when the business is fully operational again."
Whitney, who is a web designer at Clark Communications, started the initiative as a side project. He got the idea from some other websites that had been created to help connect businesses to the public.
"It is basically a platform where people can go online and connect the consumer to the business owner directly," explained Whitney.
"From there the business owner can respond with how to receive gift certificates or some people are actually requesting items so it is pretty cool to see that expanding during this time."
The project does have some challenges though, especially when Whitney realized some businesses did not have online merchants or gift certificates specifically.
"So I thought it was best to just foster the connection directly to the business owners email," said Whitney.
"I have received a lot of feedback from business owners in North Bay and it has been nothing but positive feedback so that is great to see."
It is the least Whitney thought he could do during this crisis.
"I think I am a helpful person and so I try to give as much as I can."
You can check out the website at www.loveourlocals.ca
