Chris Lerch is passionate about supporting small businesses. And while he claims Small Business Saturday – an annual event observed the day after Black Friday – is his favorite day of the year, his efforts to do so extend throughout the year.

“Small businesses are the heart of a community, but they can’t survive without our support,” he said. “I work to generate that support for local businesses because I believe they make our communities better.”

In 2020, Lerch founded Hello 422, an organization that promotes small businesses located along the Route 422 corridor from Birdsboro to Phoenixville. The goal was to drive traffic to local shops and restaurants that were struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The same year, he kicked off Shop Small to Win Big, a campaign that has become an a

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