Students assist local businesses hit by COVID-19

The students were part of a process in two rounds of grant funding for entrepreneurs that submit applications to the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, which doled out nearly $6 million in grants to more than 1,600 businesses and nonprofits under strict deadlines, said Adam Krynicki, Oregon State University-Cascades Innovation Co-lab executive director.

“It was a great experience for the students,” Krynicki said in an email. “They had to use their professional, technical and customer service skills. They had to work with a team of other students and professionals...The local community was depending on them.”

Around Central Oregon, small businesses and nonprofits have been hit hard by shutdowns and restrictions imposed to curtail the spread of COVID-19.

“The Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council is grateful to serve our partners in supporting small businesses and non-profits suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic and the required public health measures,” said Scott Aycock, Deschutes County Community and Economic Development director. “We know this isn’t enough, and the pandemic isn’t over, but Central Oregon is resilient and strong in our networks and our willingness to collaborate to help each other.”

Since the start of the pandemic Bella Martinez, owner of Communitie Wellness studio on Hill Street in Bend, would probably not be in business had she not received about $6,200 in grants from the county.

During the first lockdown in March, she was completely shut down, Martinez said. This summer she recouped some business but now it’s down about 25%. The grants were used to keep her rent covered in her business that opened just this year.

“Once we were cleared to work in Phase 2, it did get pretty busy actually,” Martinez said. “Everyone is pretty stressed. My industry hasn’t been hit as bad as some others. Honestly, if it wasn’t for these grants, I wouldn’t be able to stay in business. I wouldn’t have been able to hold on.”

As the cases have surged, clients have opted to stay at home, Martinez said, which affects her client list and ultimately her bottom line.

It’s a similar story for Starla McMullin, owner of Northstar Massage Therapy in Redmond. The 41-year-old owner never thought she’d need a handout in her 6-year-old business.

“Business was great until COVID-19 shut it down,” McMullin said. “While the current shut down isn’t shutting my business down, it is affecting my clients who working in restaurants, bars and the hospitality industry.”

Those clients make up about 10% of her revenue, and the balance are individuals, some who are considered high risk because of age or health issues. McMullin received about $5,000 in grant funding.

“I was doing good until the recent shutdown,” McMullin said. “I’m down about 40%. I can’t wait for this to be over.”

The students, who are interns at the Innovation Co-Lab, helped the council evaluate the applications and work with business owners to help them meet eligibility for funding. It’s a process that required attention to detail and the ability to speed up the data entry portion of the work.

That’s where Hartsock’s computer science knowledge came in handy. Applying his classroom knowledge to a real work application was a great experience, Hartsock said.

“We were working on the application validation or data integration portion,” said Hartsock. “Using our computer knowledge, I turned what would have relied upon manual inputting and taken hours and worked an algorithm to automate the data.

“I spent about three hours on the software application that saved us 10 or 12 hours in data entry by automating it.”

Lara-Luna said she found working with the business owners rewarding. As a child growing up in Redmond, Lara-Luna has an intimate knowledge of the struggles of a small business owner. Her father owns a water damage and reconstruction business.

“We helped the businesses prove that 25% of their income was lost to COVID-19,” Lara-Luna said. “Everything was online in a specific format that we could all look at. I learned how much COVID-19 impacted the businesses around us. It gave me a broader point of view of how many businesses that were impacted by COVID-19.”