November 5th 2015

October Finalists Announced!

We want to thank everyone for being so patient this month and waiting for us to announce October’s finalists. So without further a do here are our finalists for October’s Qualification Grant!

October’s Qualification Grant Finalists

Asbury Farms Cider
Betsy Harris

Betsy has always enjoyed hard cider but would became frustrated that the mass market was offering cider as an autumnal and very sweet beverage. So she began home brewing to better suit her tastes. She enjoyed it so much, that she started Asbury Farms Cider. Asbury Farms Cider is a small, farm-to-glass brewery, which exclusively produces hard cider from apples on their farm.

Bikes ORO
Chelsea Koglmeier
http://www.bikesoro.com

Chelsea’s company, Bikes ORO is working to build a world of linked prosperity, where every individual has the ability to access educational opportunities, professional opportunities, and adequate healthcare facilities. For every bike purchased. They provide wheels for a bike going to someone in need.

Center for Creative Arts Therapy
Azizi Marshall
Website

After a few years of soul searching, Azizi stumbled upon an opportunity to do theatre with inner city youth. Through theatre she saw these kids grow, and learn about a world outside of their existence. They were able to give voice to their struggles and begin to form bonds with not only one another but also with the community.

From there she quickly began studying and obtained her license as a licensed clinical professional counselor, a board certified trainer in drama therapy and a registered expressive arts therapist within 4 years. Azizi wanted to make sure that children and families were able to have access to programs that would not only allow individuals a place to explore and grow, but also the community at large which is how The Center for Creative Arts Therapy was born. The Center for Creative Arts Therapy is an Arts-Based, Psychotherapy Practice and Training Center.

MOR & Co.
Sarah White
Website

MOR & Co. is the outdoor store for city living. Their mission is to help individuals in America’s fastest-growing cities reconnect with the outdoors through fun, high-quality products and empowering experiences (workshops, field trips and events) to inspire more outdoor play in our increasingly urban lives.

Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids
Kit Strauss
Website

Foreign Language for Kids by Kids started when Kit started creating her own games to play at home with her son in French. To her surprise, they were very fun and her son learned rather quickly. He even asked to learn Spanish and then a year later, Chinese. Kit found herself hiring native speakers and training them to play with her son using HER games. More than a decade later, all of her children share a love of foreign language and are proficient, if not fluent, in Spanish and Mandarin, despite two of them having speech-related disabilities.

After her youngest son went to school Kit decided to create her business Foreign Language for Kids by Kids. Her program gives children three and up — and adults — the opportunity to speak and understand spanish in a short time. The words and sentences taught are practical and used in everyday life.

Overcup Press
Rachel Bell
Website

Rachel has worked on and off in the publishing and book sales fields throughout her career. However, print has always been one of her passions – quality content, exceptional paper quality, well thought out and executed book and magazine design are all things that she considers important. As the world moves to a more digital space, she thought it’s important to continue to publish books that are meant to be physical objects which is how the idea of Overcup Press came to be.

Overcup Press is an independent book publisher based in Portland, Oregon. Committed to making books that will thrive in the 21st Century. They specialize in producing unique titles that have a strong design element and illuminate the niches.

As always, thank you for reading! Remember we award a grant every month – if interested, here’s the link to apply!

Stay tuned: We will be announcing the winner next week!