GREEN BAY, Wis. (NBC 26) -- If you follow a lot of local businesses, a new social media campaign might be popping up on your timeline.
"The whole idea is to really be able to shine a light on small business in our downtowns because our downtowns make us, us," Bridget O'Connor, head of O'Connor Connective in De Pere said.
O'Connor Connective has partnered with the Greater Green Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau on a new social media campaign called Downtown Faces Forward. Two local photographers, Alexis Arnold and Mark Hawkins, are donating their time and services to take portraits of small business owners in downtown De Pere and Green Bay in order to highlight their current situation, whether that be financial duress or essential business operations, as northeast Wisconsin looks forward to economic recovery from the coronavirus outbreak.
"Our hope would be that for visitors and residents that they discover some things they didn't know existed," Brad Toll, President and CEO of Greater Green Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau said. "A lot of times, smaller businesses have smaller marketing budgets and they're not able to get the kind of exposure that some larger businesses may be able to get."
Glas Coffeehouse on North Adams Street in Green Bay is one of the first businesses being profiled. They were able to reopen for curbside service after being closed for a month.
"We are here for you. We are so happy that we were able to keep our employees employed. And we need you," spokesperson Brighid Riordan said. "We need people to understand that it's safe. We've made it as safe as possible. And we need your support."
After the Safer at Home order is lifted, O'connor is hoping to host a gallery showing of the portraits taken during the campaign at Arnold's gallery space.
The campaign will last through the month of May. You can follow and engage with the portraits on Downtown Faces Forward's Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram pages.
