Chamber Of Commerce Awards 14 Grants To Businesses Impacted By Stroll Power Outage

The Chamber of Commerce announced on Thursday that it has awarded grants from the “Lights Out Stroll 50” Relief Fund to 14 applicants affected by the power outage during the December 2024 Christmas Stroll. Executive Director Peter Burke declined to disclose the amount of money that was raised and distributed, but said the money was “equally distributed” amongst the 14 applicants.

The Chamber said these grants were funded by generous contributions from within the Nantucket business community such as Doug Leighton at ACK Natural, Jamie Strobino and Jonas Baker at The Brotherhood of Thieves, and Hanna Pointexter and Dee Fabbricatore at For Now. The Chamber said there were also many private donations that came from individuals locally and from off-island.

“Thank you all sincerely for your support of your small business neighbors,” the Chamber said in a release. “This fund remains open and actively accepting donations, and we will post notifications if we are able to offer additional rounds of distributions. In addition, I wanted to recognize the individual efforts again of Hanna Poindexter and Dee Fabbricatore, Nicole DuPont at Cisco Brewers, Brienne Snyder at Nantucket Bank as well as Jacqueline McGrady and the entire staff and Board of the Chamber of Commerce for the hard work to get this fund operational, flyers made, applications built, and funds distributed. Lastly, thank you to the entirety of the business community and many other non-profits that were invaluable sources of information and guidance.

“The outage was an extremely chaotic event, followed by frustrating turns as we explored all relief options,” the Chamber continued. “Getting this fund up and running was a display of the fiercely collaborative mindset of the entire island, and a reminder of what makes Nantucket incredibly special and unique.”

This story will be updated