GOWANDA — Mayor of Gowanda, David Smith and his wife Jill held an event on Friday to support Gowanda small businesses and the community itself.

“We were thinking about giving back to the community that’s been so great to us,” said Smith. “We also want to help dairy farmers and help our local businesses as well during this tough shutdown required by COVID-19.”

The mayor and his wife gathered up lots of various gift cards and certificates from all the local businesses in Gowanda, including closed shops. They also collected milk from local farms to support them.

“Not only can we help them now, when cash flow is short, but we can also give them immediate foot traffic when we do reopen here in Western New York, hopefully soon,” said Smith.

The mayor and his wife invited the whole community of Gowanda to drive by their house to pick up a gift card and some milk. “This was just our way of saying thank you for being the community that you are and we know times are not easy right now for anybody,” said Smith. “You’ve been so great to us, really, this is the least we could do. Love you Gowanda!”