08/21/2026
A Heartfelt Thank You to Our Community
I want to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude to our community—our family and friends, our incredible security guard, our office administrators, my fellow tenants at Commonwealth, our neighboring downtown businesses, and our local law enforcement.
You all came together so quickly, so compassionately, and so fiercely to help with a situation that, for many of you, had absolutely nothing to do with you. Yet you showed up, and I will be forever grateful.
As many of you know, our building was broken into in the early morning hours of Saturday. A man entered the building and caused significant damage throughout the property, including damage to the building, hallways, equipment, and, most personally, the private spaces belonging to myself and other business owners and tenants.
The financial impact of something like this is difficult enough for a small business, but the emotional impact can be even harder. There is an incredibly personal connection we have to the spaces where we build our businesses. As small business owners, we often spend more time at our businesses than we do in our own homes. To walk into a space that you have worked so hard to create and find that someone has violated it, damaged it, and disrupted the sense of safety you once had there is incredibly difficult.
Over the past several days, I have experienced emotions that have been difficult to put into words.
And yet, as a business owner, you don’t always have the luxury of stopping to process those emotions. You have to keep going.
For me, that meant walking into Saturday’s wedding knowing that the event had already been set up and that portions of that setup had been damaged. I had to put my heartbreak and frustration aside, repair what I could, and make sure my client and their guests still had the beautiful day they deserved.
But today, I want to put all of that aside for a moment and simply say thank you.
Our security guard deserves an enormous amount of recognition. After discovering signs of the break-in, he immediately began securing and checking the entire building while contacting our administrators and law enforcement. The response from our local officers was incredibly quick. They arrived within minutes and immediately went to work doing everything they could to help us understand what had happened.
They spent countless hours reviewing footage, communicating with us, and reaching out to surrounding businesses. Our neighboring business owners also went above and beyond, taking time away from their own businesses to review security footage and provide whatever information they could.
And then there was our community.
My family, friends, fellow business owners, and members of our community immediately began sharing the information posted by our police department. Within a remarkably short period of time, that information reached a nearby business owner who was able to provide critical information that helped identify the person responsible.
The number of people who stepped forward, shared information, reviewed footage, answered questions, checked on us, and simply offered their support has been overwhelming—in the very best possible way.
This is what community looks like!
I am sharing this because I know there are people who have very negative opinions about our city, and I know our law enforcement officers and other people who work tirelessly to protect our community don’t always receive the recognition they deserve.
This was the first time I have personally experienced something like this, and while I certainly hope it is the last, I couldn’t be more grateful for the way our community and law enforcement responded.
Tonight, I am going to sleep a little easier knowing that so many people cared enough to help.
We now know who is responsible, and appropriate steps are being taken to hold that person accountable.
To every officer, security professional, administrator, neighboring business owner, friend, family member, tenant, and community member who played a part in helping us through this:
Thank you. Truly, from the bottom of my heart!
You reminded me that even on the worst days, there is an incredible amount of good in our community.
And tonight, that is what I choose to focus on. ❤️
