Long Beach Chamber of Commerce celebrates small businesses with grants

LONG BEACH, Miss. (WXXV)- The Long Beach Chamber of Commerce is celebrating small businesses in a big way, announcing $40,000 in grants for local owners.

Grants were officially presented during the Grand Grant Fiesta at Juan Tequila’s.

Eligible businesses had to apply and must be located within the city.

The funding comes from community events hosted by the Long Beach Chamber including Taste of Long Beach.

Chamber leaders say this is the largest amount of grants given out by the organization. Long Beach Chamber Director Anna Claire Perrone said, “So sustain is a word that we decided at our January board meeting at the beginning of the year of what we were going to do this year and what our goal was. $40,000 is a lot of money, but what a way that we’re going to be able to sustain that amount of money. You start tying it in about what small business owners go through, what they have to do to sustain a business, and when you really start looking at it, one of the hardest things to do as a business owner is to sustain it. Sustain is where we’re focused on this year. My promise to the Long Beach community and the whole Mississippi Gulf Coast, we’re going to continue sustaining, but we’re also going to do everything bigger and better.”

The chamber’s goal is to keep investing in local businesses and boosting the city’s economy.