South Georgia businesses and business leaders took centerstage Thursday evening at the annual Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce  business awards ceremony. 

Chamber members, business leaders and employees, entrepreneurs and professionals piled in to James H. Rainwater Convention Center to celebrate local businesses. 

We encourage everyone to support businesses, shops and restaurants throughout the year. 

As things begin to return to a new normal and we recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, stores, restaurants and other businesses in our community will benefit greatly from your patronage.

We think you should support local businesses with your buying power. 

Buying goods and services locally will speed up the pace of recovery, is good for the local economy overall and consequently good for the community.

Whether you prefer in-person shopping or the online experience, you can still shop locally because so many businesses offer high quality, convenient online experiences.

We encourage our readers to support businesses in our region, even when shopping online.

It simply makes sense to support businesses right here at home.

Keeping your shopping dollars as close to home as possible, supports local businesses and bolsters the economy. Every dollar spent locally represents an investment in the future of our communities.

Our community has diverse shops, clothing stores, discount retailers and quaint shops. We don’t have everything — nobody does — but most needs can be met without a trip out of the county.

There is also the important fact that local businesses have a great tradition of giving back to the community.

Local businesses donate back to local nonprofits, charities, schools and churches. Supporting those businesses supports all those organizations, institutions and agencies.

When you shop locally, you are helping to create jobs, fund local infrastructure and government services through your sales tax dollars and are helping to incubate further community development. Entrepreneurship is the backbone of the middle class, the catalyst for economic growth and, in many ways, the character of a community.

When local businesses flourish, the community flourishes.

And congratulations to the chamber for staging such a nice event and to all of the stellar winners at this year’s awards banquet.