An unfortunate sign of the times lately has been closed businesses amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Nonprofit YES Cinema is among those, with staffers estimating that the nonprofit will have lost an estimated $35,000 to $40,000 in lost ticket sales, concessions, lost on-screen advertising revenue, special event cancellations and more by the end of April if it must remain closed that long.
But its leaders now have a plan to generate income — and honor the area’s essential personnel simultaneously. That includes medical workers, first responders, grocery and drug store workers and others.
They’re selling yard signs — ones saluting that very group of people — reading “Columbus Cares.” The messages are intended as a community-wide show of support.
And the $15 purchase price of the signs, produced by the local Quick Signs business, will offer practical, bottom-line support to YES. In other parts of the country, other drives have surfaced, such as Hearts for Health Care Workers, featuring signs with heart logos.
A similar movement sprouted in nearby Bedford.
“We’ve just taken that idea a step further, (than just health care workers) in order to thank everybody,” said Randy Allman, executive director of Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center that operates YES Cinema and is a part of the effort.
The neighborhood center and YES have allowed a number of people dealing with various challenges to get job training and other assistance to work toward self-sufficiency. Plus, Lincoln-Central uses YES profits to boost its work with everything from parenting classes to various types of tutoring.
These efforts are even more significant because they unfold in one of the city’s most financially challenged areas — and United Way of Bartholomew County and other leading partners have singled out poverty as a key concern in recent years.
Bedford native and Columbus resident Annette Howell brought the yard sign idea to Columbus, according to the Allmans. Her daughter, Sarah Wells of Swell Designs, created the graphics.
Linda Allman, the event coordinator for YES, is coordinating the sign selling effort, which includes members of the Columbus Newcomers Club delivering the signs to purchasers’ yards while maintaining social distancing. She said there’s no specific dollar goal, other than helping YES’ financial picture by continuing to pay the cinema’s 18 part-time workers, as it has done since closing in mid-March.
“The sky is the limit,” Linda Allman said.
At press time, 11 people already had decided to purchase the 18-inch by 24-inch signs, she said.
Wendel, whose own company he owns with wife Lisa has had its office closed for walk-in business and most work other than essential signs, is donating the first 50 signs — and making the remaining ones at cost with no profit margin “so YES can make as much money as possible.”
The couple has long been familiar with the work of the neighborhood center and the movies at YES Cinema.
“They’re awesome there,” Wendel said of the center and of YES. “And they do great work.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”How to get a sign” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
You can order Columbus Cares signs to honor all essential workers at the website lcnfc.org/columbuscares. Click the buy now icon.
The signs are a team effort among the Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center, YES Cinema and Quick Signs to benefit the cinema.
Members of the Columbus Newcomers Club will deliver purchased signs within about a week and plant them in the buyer’s yard.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
