Hometown Heroes Nominees: Rex Harris, Drew Meyer

We will spotlight 1-2 nominees every week before our December 2 event. Nominate your heroes by November 16 at NOMINATE.

Rex Harris, Drew Meyer

It all started on March 19, 2020.

When Governor Newsom issued the Shelter-in-Place (“SIP”) order for California businesses on March 19, 2020, most of us saw it either as a much-needed break from work drudgery, welcomed and respected science, or were too stunned to know how to react. Rex Harris and Drew Meyer immediately recognized the impact SIP would have on local businesses, including performers, whose income was dependent on foot traffic and physical events. Rex and Drew had an idea, and reached out to Santa Cruz Works (“SCW”), The Downtown Association (“DA”), Santa Cruz County & City Economic Development "(“Econ Dev”), Santa Cruz County Business Council (SCCBC”), Santa Cruz Tech Beat (“SCTB”), Monterey Bay Economic Partnership (“MBEP”) the Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce (“Chamber”), and more. See Our Thanks. The idea became known as “Ride Out the Wave” (“ROTW”), a campaign inviting the community to purchase online gift certificates from local businesses impacted by SIP.

Rex, formerly a project manager at Amazon, drafted a plan and recruited a team of volunteer coders. Drew, a marketing wizard at Amazon, put together a marketing plan. Within 10 days, a fully-functional site was built. With the help of SCW, DA, SCCBC, Econ Dev, and the Chamber, businesses were notified to sign up on the ROTW site. Approximately $65,000 was donated by local tech companies such as Looker and Amazon to be used as matching funds. Over the next 45 days, more than $432,000 of purchases were made to support local businesses. Full stats HERE. Since then, California Treasure Ma has showered accolades on the ROTW campaign, and drawn the interest of numerous cities to emulate the same campaign.

Kudos to Rex and Drew for their idea and effort to bring our community together during these difficult times.