Press ReleaseFriday, March 27, 2020
Contact: Liz Swaine, 318-455-2593Downtown Shreveport Kicks Off a Salute of Daily Good Deeds
(And there are so many from which to choose!)
The news is dominated right now by lots of bad- virus fears, business closings, job losses. Businesses, employees and residents of downtown Shreveport are experiencing the same sort of challenges and can relate to the uncertainty.
It is remarkable, then, that people who are also facing the loss of livelihoods, businesses and jobs are responding with small acts of kindness and selflessness. These people are unable to write large checks to help others out, but they are making small and important differences in a number of ways.
Retro Down Town Café owner Kristi Tift has been sending large carafes of her specialty coffees to other restaurants and businesses to let them know she is thinking about them, and to give them a little caffeine boost to help get through a long day.
Downtown resident Chris Lyon and a friend took their gardening gloves and spent a couple of hours pulling weeds at Caddo Common Park.
Logan Mansion owner Lisa Brutto, upon hearing that Caddo schools were stopping feeding services, began preparing and taking meals to downtown children.
Noble Savage Tavern chef Jon Ortiz set up the Savage Pandemic Fund to raise donations for Noble Savage employees facing lean times and local musician Seth Bradford has set up a ‘Live From My Living Room’ performance to raise money for the family-owned downtown The Missing Link restaurant. The list of these small gifts and spontaneous acts of generosity gets longer by the day.
The DDA believes it is important to showcase these acts and these people, because this is what we are- and these are the people and the types of actions – that will bring our Downtown and our City back when COVID-19 is over.
We will be featuring these acts on our Shreveport DDA Facebook page each weekday and on our website at downtownshreveport.com/dailygooddeeds
Read about Kristi Tift and what motivated her to start sharing free coffee with ‘competitors’ at: https://downtownshreveport.com/dailygooddeeds/
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John came to Shreveport in January of 1977 when he was transferred to Barksdale AFB.
He’s been active in Shreveport politics since deciding to make Shreveport his home.
John practiced law for 40 years and he now monitors local politics. He regularly attends Shreveport City Council and Caddo Parish Commission meetings.
John is published weekly in The Inquisitor, bi-monthly in The Forum News, and frequently in the Shreveport Times.
He enjoys addressing civic groups on local government issues and elections.