It isn’t easy for a small business to serve customers and pay the bills even in a strong economy. But now small businesses across the Columbia Basin are hammered by mandated closures and social distancing due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Owners and operators of small, locally owned businesses — so central to the life of small towns in the region — are challenged like never before. Not knowing how long the mandates will go on, they get creative and look for help.

Now a business that likewise knows about the challenges of small business — the local newspaper — is stepping forward with a matching grant program specifically for small, local businesses. Hagadone Media Group, which includes this newspaper, The Sun Tribune and Basin Business Journal, as well as publications in Idaho and Montana, is offering matching advertising funds for May, June and July. The commitment is for up to $1 million across the company, with individual matching grants up to $10,000 a month. The match will stretch small businesses’ dollars during the pandemic.

“We want to help them through this,” said Caralyn Bess, publisher of the Columbia Basin Herald. “We care about our local businesses. Together we will get through this.”

Hagadone is a family-owned business and is committed to supporting the communities it serves. The company has made it easy to apply, with a very simple form online, at https://matchgrant.hagadonemediagroup.com. The form can be found also at columbiabasinherald.com or suntribunenews.com: Click on the banner at the top of the page.

The online form is very short: Beyond contact information, at the bottom is the question of how your business was affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Bess will review the applications, and response will be quick — one to two business days, she said.

Two small-business people in downtown Moses Lake know the struggles of staying in business.

Sue Torrence will have had her store, Sue’s Gift Boutique, for 29 years on May 9. Torrence said Thursday was probably the biggest day she’d had in six weeks at her downtown Moses Lake store as she continues to adjust, by trying to operate online and taking orders over the phone.

Carla Needham, a licensed massage therapist, has been at her current location for seven years. Tootsies reflexology massage therapy is one of four businesses operating in the Body Benefitz wellness center in downtown Moses Lake.

Needham said, personally, the past few weeks of the pandemic shutdown have hurt tremendously.

“We’re really concentrating to try and keep it open, and praying that everyone is good and safe so that we can open back up and help the community as best we can,” Needham said. “Business is all about the community.”

The matching grant program is not just for Moses Lake — it includes Grant County and Adams County communities.

Bess says its current advantaged pricing and matching grant will help businesses reconnect with their customers and reach new ones in the COVID-19 period.

“So, as we emerge from this, we help them flourish,” Bess said.

Earlier, the Columbia Basin Herald created and paid for a Shop Local program to promote local small businesses, seeing they would be hurt by the pandemic mandates.

“We know everybody is hurting,” Bess said. “We care and we want to help all of the small, local businesses in our communities get through this tough time by matching their marketing spend with us. We are also in the process of completing a survey that we have done in partnership with Pulse Research to help them (businesses) better understand how and what people plan to spend money on as we emerge from these stay-at-home orders.”