A campaign to help struggling businesses during the pandemic has been started by a Maple Ridge mortgage broker.
Love-19 is a gift card giveaway planned for each Saturday over the next 19 weeks. Each giveaway is being held in support of businesses in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows and others in the Greater Vancouver Area.
Scott Sarai explained Love-19 actually started with mortgage brokers on the eastern side of the country, describing it as a call to action for real estate leaders.
And after seeing their success he decided to try it here, especially after lockdowns were implemented again by the province on small business.
“It was just to spread a little love to local businesses that have been affected by COVID-19,” said Sarai.
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The focus, he said, is on Maple Ridge businesses, but, he is partnering with other realtor business friends from the Greater Vancouver Area, and will feature small businesses from those communities as well.
“It is not just restaurants either. We are trying to encapsulate a larger variety of businesses if possible,” he said.
About seven of the businesses so far are from Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.
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The weekly announcements will be made on Sarai’s social media accounts – either on Instagram or Facebook – and participants will have to answer a simple question like: if you could travel anywhere tomorrow, where would you go?
Participants will answer the question in the comments of the post and and then a random number selector on Saturday will pick the winner.
Anyone can nominate a business for the gift card giveaway.
Sarai and the realtor of the week that he will be partnering with will purchase the gift cards that will be given out.
Each one will be worth approximately $100.
“I will just randomly pick some in each community and support them,” he said.
To nominate a business contact him through Facebook or Instagram at Scott Sarai or SGS Mortgages.
“It was something super simple and it wasn’t a ton of work to set it up and I think it’s a great campaign to spread some love at a weird time right now,” said Sarai.
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