Raymore Restaurant And Small Business Week | April 26th-30th 2021 | Highlight My Town | Raymore, MO

Dan Edson:

Welcome to Highlight My Town. I’m here with Dave Gress, the Director of Economic Development for Raymore. How are you?

Dave Gress:

I’m doing all right today. Thank you.

Dan Edson:

Awesome. We wanted to stop by to talk about the upcoming Restaurant and Business Week here in Raymore. Tell us the purpose behind this upcoming week.

Dave Gress:

Yeah, so our residents here are always looking for opportunities to support local businesses in the local business community and we thought, what better way than to put together an event to celebrate all of our local businesses. Restaurant Week isn’t something that’s a new concept, so we didn’t necessarily recreate the wheel. We just thought what better way to recreate something that’s a little more Raymore specific and give an opportunity for residents to get out and try some new things and celebrate some of our local businesses here this week.

Dan Edson:

That’s great. Tell us about the small business growth here in Raymore and how important small businesses are in our community.

Dave Gress:

Definitely. So small businesses, especially in a city like Raymore, typically make up the backbone of our local business community. It’s people who have lived here in Raymore or been in Raymore for several years and so because of that, they’ve got deep roots, strong ties, family ties to the community. We have a lot of local residents that have invested a lot of time, energy and resources to living here, but also running their business here. And to have that type of dedication and commitment to our city is really, really important and critical for the growth of our business community and just the city overall into the future.

Dan Edson:

Definitely. Tell us how Raymore businesses have contributed to the betterment of our community.

Dave Gress:

Sure. Like I said previously, a lot of small businesses are rooted here in the community and because of that, I think they pride themselves on the contributions that they made to Raymore over the years, whether it’s sponsoring any of our parks and rec baseball or soccer teams, donating or sponsoring some of our Chamber of Commerce events, the list runs on, or something as fun as the Crank It Into Spring event that Dave’s Bike Shop put on here recently. All those types of things tend to add to the fun nature of Raymore and what it has to offer, for sure.

Dan Edson:

Definitely. So tell us why it’s important for Raymore residents and people in the community and the surrounding area to come out and support the local restaurants and businesses.

Dave Gress:

Definitely. So as you all are aware, local businesses have had a lot of challenges over the last year and even to this day, some of them are still dealing with that. And with local businesses, the success of those typically lies directly in the community in which they’re located. Without the local support of our residents and the surrounding communities, the business is usually not successful. So any opportunity to spread the word of mouth about a new restaurant, a new business, or somebody that’s been here for awhile that residents just might not know about, I would love to take that opportunity to help spread the word and create something like this to get folks out and about in the community.

Dan Edson:

Now more than ever, our small businesses need our support.

Dave Gress:

Exactly.

Dan Edson:

So as a local real estate agent, I came up with a new initiative supporting local businesses with the Highlight My Town Facebook community, and website. I was just wondering what your thoughts are as far as our initiative and what you think about it.

Dave Gress:

Yeah, I think it’s great that you were so interested in what’s going on and that you’ve created a platform with your realty business to let folks know that are already here what’s going on in the community and probably as a means to attract other residents here to Raymore and build new [inaudible 00:03:37]. So I think what you’re doing with your platform is extremely important for your industry, as well as the growth of Raymore as well.

Dan Edson:

Dave, I really appreciate you letting us stop by and visit with you today and I just want to encourage people to come out and support the local businesses here in Raymore and it’s important that the residents come out and show their support. So I appreciate your time.

Dave Gress:

Absolutely. Thank you all and to everyone watching, stay tuned to the city’s Facebook page during this week. We’ll be raffling off several gift cards to any restaurant that is participating next week, so stay tuned for more.

Dan Edson:

That’s awesome. Thanks again.