In mid-2020, Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association (BKBIA) President Blair Cohn was handed a check. There was just one stipulation: help the businesses that need it most.
At the time, Cohn was scrambling. Bixby Knolls, and the businesses he was tasked with supporting, were in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. Restaurants had shut down. Items lay idle in empty storefronts. The lively atmosphere of the corridor was quiet as residents hunkered down in their homes, not yet knowing that they’d remain there for the foreseeable future.
Over the next year, Cohn would receive four more checks with the same requirement. Each time he received one, he’d head to Instagram to thank the anonymous donor.
He would not reveal how much money the BKIBA received from this donor, but it was enough to honor them with the association’s 2021 Supporter of the Year award and the Orchid Award, traditionally given to individuals who invest the most into the corridor.
On May 25, the anonymous donor’s identity was revealed in an Instagram post: longtime Bixby Knolls resident Jane Nadeau.
“I was overwhelmed, absolutely overwhelmed. When Blair posted it on Facebook, and people started responding and I read it, I sent him a text message and I told him I was sitting here crying and he said, ‘Mission accomplished!’ Nadeau said. “I know I did the right thing because my community said thank you.”
“From the get-go, it was a sense of panic. The phones were ringing off the hook like, ‘What do I do? How do I operate? What’s next?’ So we were busy trying to keep people’s hope alive.”
—Blair Cohn, President of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association
When the pandemic began, Nadeau didn’t think much of it. She thought it wouldn’t last very long, a common misconception during the virus’s infancy. But when businesses started shutting down and people started dying, she feared what would happen to the Atlantic Avenue corridor.
“I was nervous about what was happening, who’s gonna make it and who wasn’t and how many businesses […] I just, I love my neighborhood,” Nadeau said, stifling tears. “I get emotional talking about it, sorry.”
Cohn had kept residents abreast of the latest news in the corridor via newsletters and social media updates.
“From the get-go, it was a sense of panic. The phones were ringing off the hook like, ‘What do I do? How do I operate? What’s next?’ So we were busy trying to keep people’s hope alive,” Cohn said.
Though restaurants were able to pivot to outdoor dining or take-out only, retail and beauty businesses were closed down, “waiting and waiting and waiting for any kind of word from the county or the state on what to do,” Cohn said, calling it a time of “misery, panic and concern.”
Nadeau is a true believer in shopping local and she practices what she preaches, saying she does 90% of her shopping on the Atlantic Avenue corridor.
“These are people that are living their passion. These folks like to do small businesses, they have entrepreneurial skills and they find the resources,” Nadeau said. “I liked the fact that they promote Long Beach products. It’s not like a big retail, big box store. It’s more personable, you get to know the owners. It’s fun to shop, especially in Bixby […] It’s fun to go and support your community.”
She credited her mother for her sense of altruism, describing her as a Southern Baptist woman who was “always doing stuff for other people.” Though she’s not religious, the so-called Golden Rule derived from a Bible passage—do unto others as you would have them do unto you—stuck with her.
“People just need to continue to shop at local businesses. It would be nice if more people would just think about other people and help out,” Nadeau said. “Essential workers are everybody. The post office, the retail, everybody wants help, needs a hug, needs love.”
The money Nadeau donated went directly to Bixby Knolls businesses—paying for business licenses and utility bills, purchasing food from local restaurants and donating it to frontline workers, and pre-ordering freebies for promotions to bring in customers.
On top of her personal donations, she also started a GoFundMe that raised nearly $3,000 to purchase food from Bixby Knolls restaurants that was donated to local hospitals, convalescent homes, rehabilitation centers and local police using Long Beach-based AlleyCat Deliveries.
“Jane was able to cover all that. She did it multiple times and said, ‘I don’t want anything, don’t tell anyone, don’t use my name. But who else needs it?,” Cohn said. “I would say, ‘Okay this person needs it, and that person. We would contact [the businesses] and say, ‘Look, we have somebody that wants to help.’”
Nadeau would not reveal how much she donated over the course of the pandemic, only calling the amount “substantial.”
Not every business survived the pandemic. Derrick’s on Atlantic, Elise’s Tea Room and Mixx Kitchen shut down. Others, like Dream Come True Tea Room and Averyboo Arts, moved locations. But Bixby Knolls continues to push on.
Cohn said that the BKBIA received a multitude of donations during the pandemic, many of which were anonymous.
“But Jane was really an exception. Some people would write checks or make a payment or just send something in, but Jane was particularly concerned, would be calling us saying, ‘What can I do? Who can I help directly?’”
Cohn said the neighborhood has a “true sense of community, in the real sense of it,” something he’s helped cultivate as president of the BKBIA through community events like First Fridays and community parades during the pandemic.
“The people care about each other, they care about the neighborhood. The BKBIA has been a conduit for this,” Cohn said. “That’s what makes it so unique. It’s that you can walk down the street and wave to people you recognize or honk while you see somebody as you’re driving by.”
