The COVID-19 outbreak in Montana has resulted in widespread business closures, but some local businesses have managed to stay busy throughout the crisis, and that has presented a new opportunity to support the local community.

“We were fortunate not just to keep the work we had, but we’ve also actually been able to keep quite busy,” reported Kirk Cornelius, the strategic director for ZaneRay in Whitefish.

ZaneRay is an e-commerce design and development agency with 32 employees throughout the valley. The company, which has been operating in the Flathead for the last 20 years, focuses on designing websites for outdoor industry brands such as Patagonia and Carhartt.

With most people cooped up in their houses and barred from patronizing brick-and-mortar stores, online shopping has seen a sudden surge in popularity. That’s good news for ZaneRay, whose business has only been increasing since coronavirus hit the U.S.

Cornelius said his team—which is working from home these days—knows they are fortunate that business is still booming in their industry. And since they recognize many of their local neighbors haven’t been as lucky, they are working to use their good fortune to give back to their fellow businesspeople.

“As one of the businesses in the valley that is fully operational, we thought about what can we do to help the others,” Cornelius explained.

A QUICK solution was to use their revenue—which remains exceptionally steady despite the financial setbacks plaguing most businesses—to help keep hard-hit local businesses afloat.

ZaneRay had already established a donor matching program for employees, through which the company matches any donation up to $250 to nonprofit organizations. They decided to expand this existing initiative to include for-profit businesses in order to give employees the opportunity to support local stores and restaurants that have been closed because of coronavirus.

“There’s so much need around us right now,” Cornelius observed. “We’re looking around at our friends and neighbors really struggling right now.”

The ZaneRay leadership decided to expand their donation program because it was a quick way to utilize a program that was already in place to provide assistance to fellow businesses. “We were looking for things we could activate quickly,” Cornelius said.

He reported the donation program is “already part of the culture at ZaneRay,” and most of their workforce was already donating through this effort before the pandemic erupted.

He explained this idea was a way to “quickly move some tangible support. That matters so much right now.”

ZANERAY IS also working to support local businesses impacted by coronavirus by sponsoring weekly take-out lunches at restaurants in Columbia Falls, Whitefish and Kalispell. Even though restaurant owners, like those of the newly opened Sunrift Restaurant in Kalispell, have reported only a “trickle” of business lately, “they are happy for the trickle,” Cornelius related.

Cornelius hopes their support will contribute to keeping local eateries alive throughout the crisis, since the ZaneRay team wants to bolster the local business community and hold on to their favorite restaurants and bars. “They want to see them through this,” Cornelius said of his staff members.

And the regular lunches are a chance for employees to get out of the house and get a good meal, in addition to creating business for the restaurants. Cornelius noted the company is focused on supporting its employees through this challenging time as much as they are committed to supporting their neighbors.

“We feel supported in donating to local businesses, but also in helping our employees to get the resources they need,” Cornelius said. “It’s a win-win.”

The digital company, which was already set up for teleworking and flexible hours, easily made the transition into working from home, and they hope to continue to enable this setup to take care of employees’ health and wellbeing. They’ve also expanded the benefits available to employees, and Cornelius said their next big focus is going to be on additional ways to help their employees as their workload—and stress levels—have largely increased.

Cornelius said he also hopes ZaneRay’s initiatives can be an example to other businesses that have been able to maintain operations despite COVID-19.

“If you’re in a position where you’re fortunate enough to be operational, think about ways to contribute,” Cornelius urged.

“We’ve been inspired by seeing so many other things that people are doing,” he said. “We’re hoping we might inspire some other people.”

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at (406)-758-4459 or bserbin@dailyinterlake.com.