Photo Provided BLUE-CHEM has partnered with DeFelice Brothers Pizza for a “Pizza it Forward” program to help area residents who are dealing with tough times brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Pictured, from left, are BlueChem regional sales technician Stephen Gretchen and DeFelice Brothers Pizza President Dom DeFelice.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Brian Schambach is a lifelong Ohio Valley resident and knows the trials and tribulations faced by its people — and that is why he is working to help them.

Those are increased and more magnified as the Ohio Valley — and the entire country — deal with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has led to numerous people losing their jobs and being left to wonder what might be next in their lives.

Schambach is president and CEO of BlueChem, a chemical company in St. Clairsville. He and regional sales technician Stephen Gretchen decided to do something to help and partnered with DeFelice Pizza, which has eight locations in the Ohio Valley, to sponsor a “Pizza it Forward” campaign.

“We’d seen a lot of people donating food and items to hospitals and groups, which is a great thing, but we’re trying to get to individuals in need as opposed to groups of people,” Schambach said. “We kicked the program off last weekend and we’ve received really good feedback.”

How long the program runs remains to be seen. BlueChem has sponsored 240 pizzas, so the program is available until those are gone.

“We had more than 50 people send in recommendations of a neighbor, friend or acquaintance that they knew were struggling in these times,” Schambach said. “It’s made a little bit of an impact in the valley.”

Basically, anyone who wants to recommend someone to receive help from the program can go online to defelice.com/pizza-it-forward, fill out the information and submit the form. No questions are asked other than the person recommended is called to ask when he or she may want the pizza.

“DeFelice has been great about this,” Schambach said. “They look up the info, address and just give the person a (call). That’s pretty much all there is to it. The person nominating can remain anonymous.”

According to Gretchen, he and Schambach considered a wide variety of Ohio Valley charities but decided to concentrate their efforts on “doing something different to reach a different crowd.”

“We wanted to reach families who have been impacted and are not regularly helped,” Gretchen said. “This could benefit like a father and/or a mother who may be unemployed right now and having a hard time buying groceries and paying bills or the elderly or sick who are shut in, lonely, etc..”

Both Schambach and Gretchen are hopeful that other area businesses “jump in to fund it if it surpasses 240 nominations” to keep the program going for as long as possible.