WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — Minority-owned businesses in the Greater Williamsburg area received a bit of a boost Friday.
The York, James City County, Williamsburg chapter of the NAACP, along with community leaders from each of those places, celebrated local entrepreneurs with a series of ribbon-cutting ceremonies.
Greater Williamsburg Chamber of Commerce CEO Terry Banez credited the NAACP for coordinating the effort, and said the goal is to bring more awareness of businesses that already exist in the community.
For those small businesses, it was a much-needed day of celebration.
It’s been a walk of faith for Teirra Caines.
In May, she opened Parties Galore Cakes and More in the Edge District, which is where James City and York counties meet.
“I really didn’t know how it was going to take off in the beginning, because of the pandemic,” said Caines.
She’s doing okay, but the journey hasn’t always been so sweet, especially when it came to getting the word out.
“Not a lot of people know about this business, especially on this side of town,” she said. “There’s just not a lot of advertisement.”
At least that wasn’t the case on Friday.
Community leaders "re-introduced" Caines, and other entrepreneurs of color, to the community. The group held ribbon-cutting ceremonies at Life Beauty Supply, Jazzercise Williamsburg Fitness Studio, Nekeyas Seafood Cafe, Discover Teas and Gholson & Associates.
The latter is owned by YJCW NAACP president Lawrence Gholson, and his wife, Ti’Juana. They said there wasn’t a lot of attention to minority owners in the community, and they wanted to change that.
“Specifically, Black and brown businesses that may have been incidentally or accidentally overlooked, or just not even known that these businesses were even here,” said Lawrence Gholson.
“We became aware that there were businesses next to the businesses that we were doing ribbon cuttings for, that we frequent, but the localities didn’t necessarily know existed,” he said.
Caines, who cried when she received a certificate from community leaders, said a lot of entrepreneurs of color aren’t as connected, or aware of resources to help their businesses, which is part of the reason why the celebration felt so significant.
The Gholsonsm who are also founders of a group called the Interpeace Coalition, said they recently received a major grant from the state. The money will allow them to train local entrepreneurs to grow their business and connect to proper resources for free.
Similar celebrations are planned for other minority owners on the following dates: Dec. 17, Jan. 21, and Feb. 18.