With the recent wave of temporary closures by small businesses, Heidy Kellison realized she’d have to take on a whole new approach to promote her blog’s message to shop locally. Last year she launched  DowntownNorCal.com, a website that showcases clothing boutiques, restaurants and other brick and mortar businesses in cities and towns across northern California. In the past few days, she’s shifted her focus from items the local shops have to offer, to talking with owners about how they’re coping and adapting amid the coronavirus outbreak. “There is a lot of confusion, and a lot of fear, and a lot of sadness,” Kellison said. “Businesses are having very painful conversations with their staff, staff who they love, about filing for unemployment.” One local business owner facing that difficult challenge is Rose Cholewinski from Swim America, a facility in Davis that offers swim lessons and camp programs. Kellison and Cholewinski chatted via Zoom this week about closing down for the time being. “Rose had an emotional moment when I asked her what people can do to help support local businesses and she held up a photo of all her staff, and she just said ‘When you see these people in the community, they are without jobs, send them a little extra love,'” Kellison said. The conversation was uploaded to Kellison’s Facebook and Instagram pages garnering more than 1400 views. Kellison says she’s conducted more than a dozen interviews with local business owners and has several more planned in the days ahead. After concluding a career at the Capitol, which included working in the offices of former Sens. Dan McCorquodale and Hilda Solis, Kellison spent 10 years writing the “Personal Shopper” column for the Davis Enterprise. She and her husband, lobbyist Peter Kellison of Clear Advocacy LLC, live in Davis and together they are finding ways to continue to support their favorite local businesses. The couple are members of Iggy Training, an exercise and personal training facility in their town. Kellison says they are still paying their full monthly dues despite the gym’s closure, and their trainer Igor is providing 60-minute live workouts three days a week via Zoom. “You need to look at the businesses you love and help to keep them here,” Kellison said. She has also chatted with the folks at Avid Reader in Davis, which has closed to the public but is still fulfilling book and toy/game/puzzle requests over the phone and online. Kellison says the shop is also selling a special birthday basket designed for children who have had to cancel celebrations and gatherings. Kellison says she and her husband have also recently utilized “Nytch,” an app developed by Grant Lea from Woodland which helps users connect to locally-owned businesses in their community. “We have a ping pong table but we were out of balls and our paddles are old, so we put out a request for those items on Nytch,” Kellison explained. She says Davis Sports Shop replied saying they had those products in stock, Kellison paid for them on the app, and she expects them to be delivered to her house before the end of the week. “Now is the time to think about new ways to shop,” she said. Kellison plans to post a new video about a local business each day in hope they will all be back in business soon. “I want to see the same store fronts open again,” she said. “I don’t want to see them lose their livelihood. I have so many favorites and can’t bear the thought of losing any one of them.” Contact: Kellison, heidy@cwo.com or Downtownnorcal@gmail.com.