_{This story is from The Heights, an independent, nonprofit newspaper run by Boston College students with which the Newton Beacon has a partnership.}

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Lauren Berman noticed that Newton’s small businesses were struggling as farmers’ markets and storefronts shut down. Wanting to help these struggling businesses reach customers, Berman created All Over Newton, a digital initiative aimed at boosting visibility for the businesses it spotlighted.

“Small businesses don’t have big budgets, so to hire one of the Boston firms is prohibitively expensive,” Berman said. “Most of their clients are within 2 1/2, 3 miles of their doorstep … putting together a platform to reach out to the Newton community just made sense.”

Berman and her family moved to Newton 27 years ago, namely for the city’s convenient proximity to Cambridge, where she worked at IBM. She ended up falling in love with the distinct character of the city’s 13 villages, a sharp contrast to her hometown of Sudbury, Mass., which she described as “like the boonies.”

“I just felt largely disconnected, growing up there,” Berman said. “I wanted a place where we weren’t right in the city, but we could walk to different things—so my kids could walk to the library, they could walk and get pizza. That village style of living was really important to me, and I like the social connections that villages provide.”

Berman’s career began in marketing and sales at larger corporations, but after having children, she shifted to the world of small businesses. Prior to the pandemic, the city hired her to help revive its struggling farmers’ markets.

“I went down and I spoke with local growers, local makers, producers … I pitched them on the Newton Farmers’ Market, that we were going to make it a place that people really need to be,” Berman said. “It brought the markets back. It was the place to be on Saturday mornings.”

Revamping the market required launching a newsletter and website—an experience that showed Berman how digital outreach could bring in customers.

Now, the newsletter reaches approximately 5,000 households, and the site has long since outgrown its platform. This prompted Berman to hire a web developer and videographer, giving rise to the in-progress guide, All Over Newton.

Switching from a newsletter to a website meant several more features were available to Berman, and she explained that she is now focused on growing the website’s searchable database.

“A resident can go and find out the different businesses in the community by sector,” Berman said. “I also incorporate events on that site … whether it’s a Thanksgiving market, or the upcoming [Holiday] Shop & Stroll, or the Craft Crawl.”

One story Berman said has stayed with her was Lynne’s Vintique, a business she worked with during the pandemic. Hidden inside the low-traffic Mall at Echo Bridge, the shop faced visibility challenges, explained Berman.

“There’s one shop there—it’s called Lynne’s Vintique—and Lynne had reached out to me,” said Berman. “It was during the pandemic. She’s deaf, and during that time, fewer people went to shop, and when they did shop, they wore masks … she lost that means of communicating.”

When owner Lynne Robbins purchased oversized French-pastry fortune cookies for Valentine’s Day, she had no website or social media to promote them.

“It was around Valentine’s Day,” recalled Berman. “She doesn’t really have a website or a social-media presence, so I put her on All Over Newton. Her things sold out within a day or two.”

The experience revealed the transformative power of digital visibility and reshaped Berman’s sense of purpose.

“Working with Lynne made me appreciate the aspects and challenges of small businesses … and how that constricted her ability to do business,” Berman said. “What I’m doing is, honestly, a lot of what I’m doing is telling the stories.”

To Berman, the strength of Newton’s small businesses lies in the people who support them, and she hopes those stories help residents see what makes each place unique.

“Every business in Newton is someone’s favorite business,” she said. “It’s just finding what makes them special and being able to share that. And I like doing that. It’s fun.”

As All Over Newton grows, Berman wants the website to become a true guide for residents deciding where to go.

“A lot of what I do with social media and newsletters is pushing information out,” Berman said. “But what I want is to get the website to the point that it’s pulling people in … to really make it the de facto source of information.”

For Berman, the project always comes back to the stories behind each business.

“Every person has a story about what brought them to that business and what differentiates that business,” she said. “When I understand that story, and then I can tell that story and share it with others, it’s very powerful.”