Page 46 - BusinessWest February 20, 2023

“Without our collaborative help and willingness to sit in these offices at 7 o’clock at night with business owners with masks on and help them upload their documents and write grants, I think you would have seen a lot more businesses throughout ” Amherst close.
Claudia Pazmany arranges meals that were bought from Amherst-area restaurants and given to those in need as part of the Dinner Delights program staged during the height of the pandemic.
pandemic. “And we put our collective talents and resources together to
put information out there and help people and businesses in need. It was remarkable to see how people came together in that time of crisis.”
By Gould’s count, Amherst “lost more than 45,000 people overnight” that fateful day in March 2020. That number includes students at the three colleges that call the community home — UMass Amherst, Hampshire College, and Amherst College — but also thousands of people who came to work at those institutions and other businesses in town. It also includes tourists who wouldn’t be coming, parents of students and alumni who wouldn’t be attending sporting events or anything else, visiting lecturers who wouldn’t be on campus, performing artists who wouldn’t be coming ... you get the idea.
In the wake of this exodus, businesses were left dazed and looking for some kind of answers — and any kind of help. Pazmany and Gould helped provide both, with everything from PPE (which they delivered themselves) to virtual ‘tip jars’ to help those out of work;
from small-business microgrants to grant-application coaching. They bought hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of meals from restaurants and gift
cards and other items from businesses to both help them survive and assist families and individuals in need.
With this assistance, and their own
Turns out, they were walking into what would become a deep (or deeper, to be more precise) and quite extraordinary partnership, through which they would help lead a community that was devasted by the pandemic perhaps more than any other in this region, and maybe the entire state, out of that darkness.
A partnership that makes them true Difference Makers in the Greater Amherst area.
Working separately on some initiatives,
but hand-in-hand in most all others, they have helped change the landscape in Amherst and its downtown in all kinds
of ways, as we’ll see. But they are also being honored for ensuring that the landscape didn’t change more than it did. Indeed, it is through their efforts that many businesses were able to survive that storm.
“It was a devastating time, but from that, we forged this great partnership,” Pazmany said of the early days of the
Congrats Claudia Pazmany
Our fearless leader for always
leaning in to Make
a Difference!
Special Mention to our Partner In Success, Gabrielle Gould!
Board of Directors
46 FEBRUARY 20, 2023
BusinessWest