Local tutoring company launches online chess coaching program for kids

As many companies struggle to stay afloat, one local business made a successful transition to the web.
Dan Starbuck Pelletier is the owner of Dig USA Chess, a local tutoring company that helps kids get ready for competitions. When COVID-19 threatened to shut his business down, Starbuck-Pelletier took the tutoring game online.
"We offer online private chess lessons, online group chess lessons…what we're finding is we're getting a ton of new kids that are looking for something to do. They're bored at home, they're doing their online learning with their school, and they're contacting us,” he says.
While Starbuck-Pelletier has to make a living, he says his first goal is to promote public safety and to encourage kids to stay active.
"We're trying to motivate them to get off the couch and to still do stuff. I mean obviously stay home, take the precautions you need to, stay safe, but that doesn't mean you can't continue to improve your mind and your body," he says.
To help people struggling, Starbuck-Pelletier says he has cut his prices by up to half. His next move is to promote positivity as a way of keeping the crisis in check.
"We're 100 percent going to get through this, but in the meantime I recommend that every business out there try to adapt, try to go online, try to be innovative and continue to make money and provide a good product at a reasonable price," he says.
Dig USA Chess says it is offering to reduce prices even further on a case-by-case basis to help families impacted by the pandemic.