From the Ashland Press March 18, 2020: “The owners of a Cable restaurant facing possible bankruptcy as the hospitality industry falters are cleaning out their cupboards to help their community. Rob and Rachel Vallone have owned the Birches Roadhouse near Lake Namakagon for about 18 months. Rob said buying the restaurant was a dream come true for the couple who spent 35 years in the food business in Hudson. But the coronavirus shutdown threatens all that. It comes at the worst possible time for the Vallones and a lot of other Northwoods businesses — during the lean months between snowmobile and ski season and the influx of summer tourists. “We live in a predominantly affluent community, and a lot of our customers are 65-plus, a lot of them are veterans, a lot are summer residents,” Rob Vallone said. “This whole pandemic is likely to shut us down. If it goes into July and August, we’ll be done. So, we can sit here and cry about it or take the resources we have and help out community.” The Vallones are choosing the latter. On Sunday at 3 p.m., they will open a pop-up, carry-out restaurant at the veterans center in Cable. They will hand out to all comers frozen portions of their customer-favorite lasagna, baked ziti and other Italian food.” For the rest of the news story:
Right now the bars and restaurants are now closed in the Cable/Drummond area. With stores unable to stock many products now, Heather Ludzack, of the Brick House, has offered to purchase, at her cost through her distributors, certain products available to her, for those unable to buy said products. All the businesses are hurting during the shutdown.
The Lake Owen Associate Board is requesting their members and all the Lake Owen visitors consider those in the Lake Owen area that may be impacted by the Covid-19 virus. Even though many of the Lake Owen residents are not currently at the lake, our lake area neighbors, retailers, service providers, caretakers etc. may suffer greatly as the above news story shows until they are all back in the area. Let’s give a hand to our Lake Owen neighbors…..we will all get through this TOGETHER!
Here are suggestion what you can do now to help:
Call those folks you know around Lake Owen and offer whatever support you can.
Purchasing a gift card from a service provider/store/restaurant or even a cash advance to your caretaker or close friends.
Make advance local purchases now for projects, upgrades, home heating fuels, appliances that you were planning on doing during the busy months of Summer and Fall.
Make a charitable contribution to Cable Area Resources in Emergency (CARE) Use the Donate button on the top menu of their website. and the Cable food shelf Click on the Give Online button on the right side of their home page.
Come up with an original idea of your own how you can help others in this time of crisis.