T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Roxanne Bruce, owner of Creative Canvas, at the window of the St. Clairsville Area Chamber of Commerce places an advertisement for a new social media campaign to bring awareness to closed businesses.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE –The novel coronavirus has closed many businesses across the country, but locally the Belmont County Tourism Council is cooperating with chambers of commerce to promote local businesses online.

“We’re basically doing a social media campaign,” tourism Director Barb Ballint said. “Remember when this is all over to support your local businesses. Locally owned businesses throughout Belmont County, we’ve asked them if they’re interested to submit a picture of themselves at their business and holding a sign saying, ‘We will be here waiting.’ They could also use, ‘Love our locals.'”

Ballint said the images will be attached to the hashtags #WeWillBeHereWaiting and #LoveOurLocals

“We sent out a mass email to all the businesses,” she said, adding this effort includes the St. Clairsville Area Chamber of Commerce.

“We’re asking them to submit these pictures by (today) April 17, and what we’re going to do is … put a video together with all these pictures and put it on our social media platform. It will kind of remind people of all the locally owned businesses or the small businesses that we have in Belmont County,” she said.

“With all the doom and gloom that we get every day, this will be a good video to receive. An uplifting video,” she said. “We have gotten several responses.”

“There’s no charge. We’re just here to market and promote like we always do all of Belmont County. This is just one way to do that. We’re having to think out of the box because of the time period we’re in now.”

People who follow the tourism Facebook page also have been sending pictures of their activities while staying at home.

“We’ve got some pictures of families and the little ones and how they’re trying to keep busy during this time,” Ballint said.

She said the local economy has taken a hit.

“I would say 99.9 percent of our events or the events that we market have been either postponed or canceled, so it’s definitely given a hard hit to the area. Who I feel sorry for the most are these nonprofits that rely on these events for their funding. Hopefully once we’re through this, we’ll be able to start re-planning some of the events and they can still be held this year.”

Belmont County was to sponsor a community expo that was to take place last weekend. Small businesses and nonprofits would have set up around the Ohio Valley Mall to showcase their goods and services.

“The Older Adult Expo has been completely canceled for 2020. That’s very unfortunate,” she added. “We’re doing our best to support everyone here in Belmont County. My message is we’re going to get through this. We’re going to get through this together. There’s sunny days ahead, I just hope it’s sooner rather than later.”

Wendy Anderson, director of the St. Clairsville Area Chamber of Commerce, said the agency is glad to help.

“We’re partnering with Belmont County Tourism,” she said. “What we’re asking are pictures, videos, you can even use sidewalk chalk in front of your business. Anything that says you are here, you are open, you are waiting for this whole pandemic to be over with so we can get back to normal. We can do this together. We have to stay strong together.”

The tourism council website is visitbelmontcounty.com.