Here is a recap of what was featured in the Wednesday, Aug. 3, e-edition of the Taylor Press. The e-edition is mailed to subscribers and available at www.taylorpress.net.
CHAMBER HEARS RETAIL DEMOGRAPHICS
Sales in Taylor are growing, according to data.
On July 18, the Greater Taylor Chamber of Commerce heard from Aaron Farmer with The Retail Coach, a national retail consulting, market research and development firm. He reviewed retailed patterns in Taylor per his firms studies.
“Obviously with some big announcements that have been made recently, whether it’s Samsung or some of the other big projects coming along, Taylor is primed for growth from the retail standpoint,” said Famer, “so whether that’s new people coming, that’s existing shoppers, that’s existing businesses expanding, retail is just on the upswing in Taylor.”
The Retail Coach used mobile location data tracking to determine Taylor’s retail trade area.
“If you’re an existing business, this is the type of data that can help you from a marketing standpoint,” said Farmer. “Where do we need to spend our marketing dollars on advertising?”
To examine the findings, visit http://www.taylortx.gov/1127/ Economic-Development-Retail-Data.
COUPLAND RESIDENTS HAVE UKRAINIAN ADVENTURE
COUPLAND – Coupland’s Debrah Candelas and partner Jeff Teasdale had an experience that very few people have had. During the Easter season, they volunteered to help the people in Ukraine.
Candelas is a nurse, and Teasdale is a retired paramedic, so they were able to provide more help that most people could.
Candelas had been in contact with a group that was organizing people to deploy to a refugee camp just inside the Poland-Ukraine border.
“We arrived at the camp and found the group we were looking for. They had recently been blessed with additional help and did not really have anything for us to do, so we found the Polish National Guard medical tent, and volunteered our services,” she said. “We would divide our time between helping displaced people with immediate medical needs, such as high blood pressure because they had to leave home without their medication, dehydration, hypothermia from the nights spent outside during their journey, children with complaints such as upset stomachs and fevers.”
At that time of year, the temperature was still falling below freezing overnight, and some of these people had traveled for a week or more with little more than the clothes on their backs.
“When we weren’t providing medical attention, we would walk across the border with wheelchairs to assist the elderly and disabled navigate the long lines and get them to the camp faster. Sometimes, people were waiting outside for up to 10 hours to cross on foot. We would walk across several times a day. We also helped collect requested supplies and walk them across the border to a car on the other side waiting to take them to the front line in the east of Ukraine.”
“After a week or so, we were approached about a mission going in to take supplies and to evacuate disabled children from a rehabilitation center in Chernihiv, a small city about 30 miles from the Belarus border that had spent 35 days under siege. It was in desperate need of supplies. For the trip, we took a retired metro bus loaded with supplies, an armored personnel carrier loaded with cans of fuel and a water purification system, and a passenger van. After several delays, we arrived at the border at 5 a.m. and spent the next 15 hours in line. After finally clearing all of the vehicles and people through the border, we started the journey of 1,000 miles.”
Once they were home, Candelas says, “We both felt the need to continue to assist the Ukrainians in their struggle. We have sent care packages to the center. We have funded a trip for a fellow humanitarian to take supplies in and bring people out, and we are hosting a mother and her 10-yearold son. … The refugees are eligible for assistance such as SNAP, Medicaid, TANF, etc.”
Candelas can be reached at [email protected].
Candelas concludes, “On July 4th as we celebrated our freedom with family and friends, I was reminded of my week in Ukraine, and I realized how much sweeter freedom tastes this year and how easy it is to take it for granted.”
