5 Most Special Moments You Missed at the 5th Annual Start Something Champions Gala
On November 1, 2016 Rising Tide Capital (RTC) hosted the 5th Annual Start Something Champions Gala. As you may know, this annual celebration of entrepreneurship raises scholarship funds for hundreds of emerging entrepreneurs to participate in the Community Business Academy. The Gala also honored the ten finalists of the 2016 Start Something Challenge (SSC), as well as RTC’s 2016 Champions of Entrepreneurship. This year’s gala was truly a special event, filled with exciting entertainment, inspiring speeches and a warm ambiance. If you missed this year’s gala don’t worry! Here are my 5 most special moments from the evening:
1. 2016 Start Something Challenge Finalists Excited to Receive Their Awards The seven 2016 Start Something Challenge finalists–Nia Reid- Allen, Pamela Roundtree, Djenaba Johnson-Jones, Vernesa Everett, Ingri Lucia-Torrello, Charnelle Bain and Natasha Dzurny–were awarded brand new iPads for their hard work in this year’s competition. This well-deserved prize will assist them on their online marketing to push their business forward.
After these prizes were distributed, The Community Choice Award was announced. As you may remember, at The Start Something Challenge Grand Finale in July, audience members were asked to vote for their favorite finalist to win a $1,000 business grant. After all in-room votes and an online poll were tallied, Natasha Dzurny of TechnoChic won the award! She was so excited and surprised and our staff were all thrilled for her.
Next, the three SSC champions, Denise Woodard, Tina Tang, and Raquel Clarke, were awarded their grand prizes of $10,000, $7,500 and $5,000 respectively. After receiving her award, Denise went on to share the story that led up to her starting a business to creating allergen-free snacks for kids and competing in The Start Something Challenge. She shared the moment when her child had an anaphylactic reaction due to a peanut snack, which motivated her to become an entrepreneur to help other families and kids with food allergies. It was truly inspiring to hear that since the SSC, she finalized her packaging, sourced a co-packer, built out her website and reached 70% of her goal in only one week on Kickstarter; which puts her on track to earn a place in the top 1% of all food Kickstarter campaigns.
2. Danielle Martin Shines Bright like a Diamond
3. The Gala honored 3 champions of entrepreneurship including the First Lady of HSN, Joy Mangano At the Gala, RTC honored three champions of entrepreneurship who were presented with unique awards, sculpted by Rising Tide Entrepreneur, Jerome China.
Tony Tolentino, Vice President of The Black Stone Charitable Foundation, accepted The 2016 Champion of Innovation award. One of the things that stuck out to me from his acceptance speech was was when he mentioned the launch of the Faces of Founders campaign, which sheds light on diversity in entrepreneurs like those in our community.
Richard Fonte, New Jersey Market Manager of Business Banking at JPMorgan Chase, not only presented all the awards to all of the SSC finalists on the evening, but also accepted “The 2016 Champion of Inclusive Economies” award on behalf of JPMorgan Chase. Rich was charismatic and fun, the perfect host to present the prizes to the entrepreneurs. JPMorgan Chase has supported the Start Something Challenge and Gala from inception–for the past five years–and every year they have presented the entrepreneurs with their awards at the gala.
After being presented with “The 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year” award by her son, Robert Miranne, Joy Mangano shared her personal entrepreneurial journey –from a struggling single mother of three to millionaire inventor–and reminded everyone in the room to never give up on their dreams. What stood out to me about her speech was when she showed appreciation to our co-founders, Alfa Demmellash and Alex Forrester, by saying that it takes genuine human beings to wake up every morning motivated to help others reach success.
4.Universe Reminded Us to Keep Pushing Forward with Her Encouraging Poetry The journey of an entrepreneur is not easy; there is constant rejection, self-doubt and obstacles that can hinder those on the road to success, including negative people who want to tear their visions down. Dr. Universe Konadu, a Rising Tide Entrepreneur, wrote and performed a poem about that difficult journey. She reminded those who embark on this journey that they are the “life changing innovators, shakers and movers, history makers making moves that contradict those who say it can’t be done.”
5. The Igniting Opportunity Challenge For the first time ever, RTC presented the “Ignite Opportunity Challenge” as an in-room fundraiser. Each guest was asked to light a candle and to think of those who make sacrifices to start businesses in the pursuit of a better life for themselves and their families. The guests were excited to light the candles and soon the room was filled with shimmering candles. From this activity alone, $27,000 was raised in ten minutes. These dollars will support nine emerging entrepreneurs through the Community Business Academy in 2017.
The Start Something Champions Gala was a really moving experience for me. This was my first gala here at RTC and it was a humbling experience, as the new Communications VISTA, to witness the work that we do. Witnessing our blended community–funders, volunteers, entrepreneurs, staff–all come together, sensing the appreciation in one room for our work and mission, was truly memorable.
