Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker had just closed all bars and restaurants to dine-in traffic in mid-March when University of Chicago Law School student Jennifer Bisgaier opened her email to find a request from Lect. Amy Hermalik.
With the coronavirus pandemic straining local businesses, Hermalik wanted to help drive traffic to Chicago-area stores that were offering online shopping, curbside pickup, and delivery for food and other essentials. To build a website, Hermalik needed volunteers.
“It was obvious there was going to be a massive disruption,” recalled Hermalik, the associate director of the Law School’s Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship. “People were not going to be out and shopping as much, and they would be looking for certain items that they could no longer find, and it just struck me as the perfect opportunity for us to highlight all of these incredible small businesses.”
