By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — More matching funds are being made available for the Rally Reno County matching program.
"This has been such a big success, the community has stepped up to support our small businesses and our families in need," said Aubrey Patterson with the Hutchinson Community Foundation. "For us, another very generous donor has said, I'll do that, I'll put in another $25,000. Let's see if we can keep this thing rolling."
The initial $50,000 investment has almost been exhausted.
"To date, we have sold over $48,000 in gift cards," said Debra Teufel with the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce. We're just 13 days into this project since we launched. We think it's going fantastic."
The matching funds go to the unmet needs fund for those impacted by COVID-19.
"More and more of our businesses right now are experiencing reduced operations," said Lisa Gleason with United Way of Reno County. "Some of them have just simply had to halt until the pandemic moves out of our community or at least slows down. Because of that, we are starting to already see unemployment numbers soaring. As we think about these hardworking individuals who have suddenly been forced to not have an income coming in and worry about how they're going to take care of their families, this unmet needs fund will help them with some much needed resources to just get stable during this really unstable time."
As of Wednesday morning, 81 businesses were part of Rally Reno County. There are links for both businesses to join and individuals to apply for the unmet needs fund on the Rally Reno County website.