By Justin Andress, For The Mountain Times
COVID-19 hit everyone hard, but its impact has been particularly tough on the businesses of Sandy and Mt. Hood. Now, a new tourism initiative called Travel 26 hopes to breathe new life into the economy we all rely on.
I sat down with Sandy Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Khrys Jones and Program Manager Shannon Givens (over a delicious meal at Sandy Family Restaurant) to learn more about this exciting new plan to bring in visitors and expose them to everything the Mt. Hood corridor offers.
Travel 26 is part of an ongoing effort that began in 2020 with the Business Recovery Centers (BRC). The initiative was funded by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill that focused on helping small businesses keep their doors open, get customers back into their various shops, and pivot into a new method of selling their products and services.
The efforts of Sandy’s BRC covered practical and financial measures. One of the first steps for the Business Recovery Centers was to provide personal protective equipment for local businesses. Said Givens, “We delivered masks and gloves and hand sanitizer. Most of the hand sanitizer stands in the area are from the BRC.”
Once practical measures were implemented, the BRC set about assisting businesses with getting the funding they needed to survive during the pandemic. Jones explained, “Any grants or any federal funding that was coming down, getting that information to them was huge.”
It was a trying time. “At one point, we reached out and called every business,” said Jones. “And [the pandemic] was so fresh that, you know, your business owners would be crying. They were hard conversations to have, but we had to do it to figure out what they needed.”
However, as funding for the BRC dried up, Jones and Givens knew their goals hadn’t been entirely met. Givens explained, “Through our work over the past few years running the business recovery centers, we started to see that there was a big need for better business representation.”
There’s never been a better time to fulfill that need. The hardships presented by COVID-
19 are still taking a toll. Mt. Hood’s Chamber of Commerce didn’t survive the pandemic. Due to staff shortages and a lack of funding, the Mt. Hood Chamber dissolved, leaving further efforts to Sandy’s Chamber.
“There’s a good, strong community [on the mountain],” Jones said. “But there’s not a business organization right now for them where we could communicate and give them information when grants were coming down and so we’ve been the boots on the ground up there.”
With help from federal and state funds, the BRC has transformed into Travel 26, an optimistic attempt to help businesses from Boring through Government Camp. This time, the emphasis is more on attracting tourists to the mountain’s visitor-facing businesses.
The new efforts haven’t been without hurdles. Givens laughs as she points out, “between the time of asking for funding and the receiving the funding, somebody bought [the domain]. So that was a bummer.”
Minor setbacks aside, however, Givens and Jones are extremely excited about the possibilities presented by this new tourism strategy. For Sandy’s Chamber of Commerce, Travel 26 is an opportunity to unite the communities strung along Highway 26.
Jones is a big believer in the deep connection between Sandy and the Mountain communities. “It works better for us if we’re partners with our outlying communities,” she said. “I’m really excited about the connections and bringing the communities together. We’d love to be all-encompassing and come together as a group, not be islands anymore.”
There’s ample opportunity for such an initiative as well, because both Sandy and the outlying Mt. Hood communities are chock full of undiscovered gems. On a recent tour of Sandy, for example, Givens led a group of visitors to Meinig Park.
“Many of the people that were on the tour were from the Portland Metropolitan area,” she said. “Often, [they visit] the mountain to go skiing or mountain biking – and they had never seen Meinig Park, because you can’t see it from the road. You just start driving through our town, you have no idea it’s there. And it’s such a cool park. It’s gorgeous. And so many of them said, ‘My kids would love this.’”
Those are the kinds of attractions that Travel 26 hopes to highlight throughout 2025. Jones and Givens plan to launch a new website and dedicated social media channels to elevate local businesses and give tourists an idea of everything that awaits them when they visit the mountain.