'Save Our Season': Steamboat Man Starts Campaign To Help Ski Towns During COVID Pandemic
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo (CBS4) - A new campaign aimed at bringing ski towns together in the fight against COVID-19 is picking up steam. Robin Craigen of Steamboat Springs recently started the campaign called "Save our Season - Stop Our Spread."
"The genesis of this was watching a public health meeting where you hear our county commissioners using words like 'dire' and using words like 'emergency', and realizing that it's an emergency, it really is," said Craigen. "That's why the message is SOS, save our season."
Craigen has lived in Steamboat for 25 years and built a family business around vacation rentals. He relies on a successful winter to keep the business afloat and said reminding people to follow the rules is no longer working.
"We don't have that option to lock down our businesses and just close the doors. That would be the end of our business, that would be the end of the jobs of the 60 people that work for our company and their families," he said.
He isn't alone. Craigen says many restaurant owners in the area have told him they couldn't survive another shutdown.
"The primary driver of business in a mountain community like this, built around an international ski destination, is the four months of winter. In our business, that's 80% of our year. If you take that away, and there is no financial safety net at this point," said Craigen.
With a simple logo, seen hanging in the windows and doors of businesses in Steamboat Springs, people are connecting to support the message.
"Some people have said to me, perhaps the only hope that we have is what we can do together," Craigen said.
Craigen started a GoFundMe for the Save our Season campaign. He said all funds will be used for marketing through stickers, window clings, social media campaigns and advertising.
