David Ross: Help us welcome college students to the Northland

Prepare yourself for the wave of energy, investment and business that is coming our way. It will be a wave of humanity and treasure that will lift up our community on a rising tide of prosperity.

Our beloved Emerald City on the Hill will soon be turbo-charged with the infusion of 26,000 college students. And, they will need to purchase things — many things.

If you work in the retail, hospitality, housing and service industries, you fully understand the profound positive impact college students have on your business.

Many students spend all summer working jobs in their hometowns so they can come to our beautiful Twin Ports and spend their earnings.

It is truly a beautiful thing.

It makes sense, and cents, then to openly and enthusiastically embrace our college students.

The Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce’s leadership is encouraging our 1,100 members to clearly illustrate their appreciation for our college students.

That is why we are distributing to our members posters that read “Welcome College Students.”

We are encouraging our members to display the posters in August and September, when many of our college students are arriving in our Zenith City and in Superior.

Please look for the green posters to begin being prominently displayed in our area businesses.

You can join in welcoming college students by picking up a poster at our Chamber office. We will have them waiting for you at 5 W. First St. in beautiful downtown Duluth.

The Chamber’s goal is to clearly convey to our college students how much we value them.

If we are successful in this noble effort, we will strengthen the connection between college students and our business community. An additional benefit may be that more of our college graduates will remain in our shining city on shores of the greatest of the Great Lakes.

As you can appreciate, we tend to stay longer where we are welcome.