‘Walhalla strong’: Business owners band together after major fire
WALHALLA, S.C. —
Business owners in Walhalla are stepping up and raising money, one day after a devastating fire ripped through the heart of Main Street downtown and destroyed several businesses.
As a lengthy rebuilding process begins, city leaders are also laying the groundwork for additional assistance for those businesses in the days, weeks and months ahead.
Tammy Smith is the owner of Willow Lane Cottage Gifts, just three stores away on East Main Street from where the fire damage ended Thursday morning.
Friday morning, she set up a bucket for donations — along with an electronic option on her register — to help her neighboring business owners that are not only colleagues but dear friends.
“It is very tight-knit, and you know, like I said, we survived and they didn’t, and I want to do what I am called to do, and right now this is the only thing that I can do,” Smith said.
Smith said another nearby business owner plans to make ‘Walhalla Strong’ T-shirts and stickers, with money that will go directly to the ‘Walhalla Fire Relief’ fund set up at area Blue Ridge Bank locations (that the public can also contribute).
While Smith said she is feeling survivor’s guilt, she’s also motivated to do what she can to jumpstart the rebuilding process.
“We are in this together, we are all in this together, we are going to help them out because when something else happens down the road, they are going to be here to help the next person out,” Smith said.
Walhalla Mayor Tim Hall said a benefit concert is also being planned to help the business owners impacted by the fire.
He also said Friday that a specially called meeting is planned for next week, for those business owners to be updated on local, state and federal financial assistance options.
“We want to gather all that together, have a roundtable, have a sit-down with these businesses and more than them, the municipal association, the Oconee Chamber; there’s a whole lot of organizations that have information can go to access resources,” Mayor Hall told WYFF News 4.