Small Towns, Big Hearts
I was lucky to attend the Fort Gratiot Business Association - General Meeting today. Fort Gratiot. Last week I also visited the Economic Development Alliance, St. Clair County, Michigan. Both organizations are promoting the local area where our business is.
Fort Gratiot - History - Population?11,000 (2018)
The Army constructed Fort Gratiot in 1814 as an outpost to guard the juncture of the?Saint Clair River?and?Lake Huron. The fort took the name of the engineer supervising its construction,?Charles Gratiot. Soldiers occupied Fort Gratiot until 1822 and then abandoned the fort.?Lucius Lyon?built?Fort Gratiot Light?north of Fort Gratiot in 1825-1829.
The Army then returned from 1828, and rebuilt the fort to a somewhat smaller size than the original,[4]?also building some timber framed structures on the site, including a hospital and officer's quarters.[5]?The site was used intermittently until 1879.[6]
Pine Grove Park occupies part of the fort site. The timber-framed hospital and officers quarters were moved multiple times within the fort, finally being placed in the western section, along what is now St. Claire Street. In the 1980s, archaeological work determined the age of the structures, and in 2000-02, the Port Huron Museum acquired both homes and moved them to a lot in Lighthouse Park, where the?Fort Gratiot Lighthouse?is located. Restoration began in 2012.[5]
It was refreshing for me because in a previous life I mainly dealt with B2B sales and support for manufacturing. Fort Gratiot, MI is where our facility resides and I can already see what a big impact it can be to the community. The population in this county where Fort Gratiot resides is aging, like most of the United States.
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We're in this together
Listening to some of the presenters, we are all experiencing problems filling positions.
Deliveries, supplies, building supplies etc. all are impacting start dates and operations.
It's all the things you read about online, but also happening in real time in communities around you.
One of the things I took a way from the meeting is that everyone is trying to pull together and help improve their community.
Buying local to help local business creates this symbiotic relationship where we all start to pull together.
So consider reaching out to some of your local organizations that are trying to jump start your community.