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The annual Visit Cook County and Chamber of Commerce Fall Gala will not take place this year. In an email Chamber Director Jim Boyd explained, “The risks are simply too great in this uncertain pandemic environment. That’s a judgment shared by a significant majority of those of you who responded to a recent Visit Cook County – Cook County Chamber survey on the issue.
“In addition, there will be no annual business awards presentation this year. We tried a virtual awards presentation last year, but it really didn’t work well. And this year, we received far too few nominations to create valid awards. So, we will give the awards a rest this year and hope to revive them in 2022.”
Boyd went on to explain, “In so many ways, this has been a trying summer: Many employers had inadequate staff; we worked under the handicaps of the pandemic’s second year; Grand Marais businesses suffered the dislocation of a second year of construction on Highway 61; drought forced fire bans and caused closures of campsites and large tracts of forest, including the BWCA, and smoke cast an unhealthy pall over the county for long stretches. It was very trying.
“Yet through it all, you carried on, with courage, strength and patience. If ever a business community demonstrated what real grit means, it was you, this summer. You truly are the heart of this community.”
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