The third annual Impact & Launch Competition is Saturday, March 28 in the Michael S. Brown Village Center starting at 5 p.m.These Impact finalists will pitch their social good projects to the panel of judges between 5:00 and 6:30. Meet the Impact Finalists:
Sarah Baldwin & Mills Brown
Project: Wofford Artisan Market
As student artists and entrepreneurs, Sarah and Mills know how difficult and sometimes intimidating it can be to market yourself on campus. This is why they have created Wofford Artisan Market. Wofford Artisan Market is a support group for creative minds. It’s an organized way for students to sell goods and help to market and promote their craft throughout the busy school year. Sarah and Mills have been interviewing student artisans, featuring them on their blog, and working to organize an event where students can sell their products on campus, or at the local Hub City Farmers Market. They believe in the potential of their businesses, as well as each student’s, and they are convinced that in working together through Wofford Artisan Market, we can achieve much more than we would on our own.
Parker Johnson, Stacey Mangan & Chandler Washburn
Project: Get Moving Campaign
Get Moving is a project that targets elementary school children in low income areas around Spartanburg to encourage the kids to lead a healthy lifestyle. Volunteers spend a couple of hours several times a week with kids in the fourth and fifth grades playing games and going through a brief warm up. Interaction with the children helps them to become more active and to enjoy working with role models before they enter middle school.
Helen Birdsong
Project: Let’s Band Together
Let’s Band Together is a service organization whose purpose is to provide free private lessons to underprivileged middle school band students in the Spartanburg area. Through one-on-one lessons, students will not only gain experience, but also confidence, a greater enjoyment of music and a valuable creative outlet.
Phillip Habib
Project: Learn More Do More
The “Learn More, Do More Project” helps individuals who are or have been in difficult situations earn a degree in order to increase their opportunities in the work force. The participants will apply for Pell Grants and other financial aid in order to subsidize tuition. The students will be enrolled at Spartanburg Community College in 42-week programs, which they will choose. These programs include advanced manufacturing, automotive technologies, HVAC and refrigeration, welding and many more. The participants will also learn how to properly interview, write a resume and become employed.
Farahnaz A.
Farah Kindergarten
Farah Kindergarten will be based in Kabul, Afghanistan, which will give underprivileged children the means to take advantage of all those opportunities that come with going to a safe and well managed kindergarten. Farah Kindergarten will help children to start learning from an early age and to think about going to school and getting an education. The children will be provided with necessary resources such as storybooks, singing books, writing and basic math books.
Launch business pitches will be from 7:45 – 9:15.
Meet the Launch Finalists:
Laura Roddey
Business: Sea Island Seasonings
Sea Island Seasonings is a product created by Laura and Thomas Roddey in 2011. With your help, they hope to provide financial assistance for two Low Country charities. Over the year they have donated over $2500. Sea Island Seasonings is a balanced blend of savory spices that is perfect to sprinkle on meats, seafood and vegetables before or after cooking. Add the seasoning to your sauces and dressings for a fantastic flavor enhancer.
Mitchell Saum
Business: Swell Vision
Swell Vision is pioneering a sustainable future by using bamboo for polarized sunglasses instead of wood. As wood has become more and more scarce, bamboo is being used as a renewable alternative. To produce a full-grown, hardwood tree can take up to 60 years, and then another 60 years for a replacement. Species of bamboo equal to the height and width of a tree take as little as three years to mature completely. Bamboo is also easy to grow, because of its root systems, which produce several shoots at a time. Like all plants, it takes in greenhouse gases and produces oxygen – in fact, 35% more oxygen than an equivalent area of trees.
Taylor Leaphart
Business: Bridge Books
In a world where distinct cultural and economic borders are becoming more like barriers restraining growth, foreign language education is essential. Millions of children are going to school and are not studying a foreign language or culture because of lack of resources and funds. Bridge Books provides a series of bilingual children’s books focusing on language learning, through stories of love, sharing, honesty, and friendship.
Victoria Biggers
Business: Wee Celebrations
Wee Celebrations provides parents of children ages 4-14 with the service of delivering high quality, unique birthday party experiences for their children. Our business provides a flexible, fully customizable party that exhibits efficiency and excellence. As they say, “from set-up to clean-up” they offer a variety of services that parents can choose from to suit their every need. Too often, parents over exert themselves planning immaculate parties for the children, but unfortunately never have the opportunity to share in their child’s happiness during the party. At Wee Celebrations they pay extra close attention to details that parents value. They not only create an opportunity to give a child a party they will never forget, but also provide an experience that is equally enjoyable to the parents.
Richard Harrison & Adrian Thompson
Business: Plate.O
The plate.O phone case plans to reinvent its customers by allowing them to personalize yet another aspect of their lives. Phone cases that are protective and stylish at the same time are rare to come by, and plate.O offers a universal phone case that is stylish to all demographics, but still prevents screen cracking from accidental drops. Through the bumper-plate technology, the personalization of the cases is only limited to the owners imagination.
Don’t forget to register for the event, because space is limited. Hashtag your experience this weekend on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with the hashtag #InLComp15. Register at wofford.edu/impactLaunchComp/register.aspx.