Page 46 - Discover Summer 2020

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Gavin Hager is a man of action. When and to the businesses themselves, in order to
COVID-19 placed serious restrictions on so encourage creative solutions.
many of our local businesses, he was inspired,
His company, The Phil Hager Insurance
and went immediately to Facebook… not
Agency took the lead, by purchasing $1000
to complain, not to ridicule, not to criticize,
worth of gift cards from local merchants. That
but to find a way to help our local businesses
was a fine start, and many of the group’s 4000
to survive. He created a Facebook Group
members followed suit. But he realized that
called, “We Shop Local SML – Virtually”.
a more long-term solution was necessary. He
The “Virtually” part was added after the more
suggested that restaurants and shops might
serious restrictions were implemented.
offer curbside, no-contact pickup, and that
Gavin realized that in our challenging idea quickly became business-as-usual for

local market, many of our entrepreneurs many.
might be facing catastrophic losses. He
Still, he wanted to do more. So he
simply could not accept that, so he used this
approached his clients, offered suggestions,
group as a platform to reach out to the public
and also solicited ideas from them to pass on

44 Discover Smith Mountain Lake SUMMER 2020