A Blackford County High School student team has won $10,000 award to turn their community project idea into reality.
County residents will be able to enjoy performing arts and music concerts in their own community theater in downtown Hartford City, thanks to the efforts of three BHS students, Jamie Twibell, Kendall Day and Ashley Johnson.
The students won a fierce competition against six other teams in an event organized and hosted by Blackford County Economic Development Corp. (BCEDC) and Blackford County Community Foundation (BCCF).
The teams had eight minutes each to pitch their project idea to an audience of about 150 guests and community leaders Wednesday night at the annual BCEDC dinner at the Lake Placid Conference Center.
Members of the audience then voted for the best project. Parents and mentors of the competing teams were not allowed to vote in order to avoid bias.
The initiative, which is called We Engage, is designed by BCEDC, BCCF, Blackford County Schools and other local partners to engage millennials in community activities and development.
The program aims to draw ideas from students and involve them in community activities in hopes of encouraging more young people to choose to live in the community or return to the community after college.
"Since Thanksgiving, students have been working on their ideas," said Jacob Everett, executive director of the BCEDC.
"Our biggest challenge is population loss and students were asked to think big and focus on how their projects will invite people to the community and address population loss."
Everett said the student project ideas were built like business plans.
The winning team will now turn to focusing on how they are going to implement their project.
"Music and the performing arts are important to me personally and they can play a major role in a community's identity," said Jamie Twibell, a BHS sophomore.
"I am proud that our efforts are going to help shape the future of this community," she added.
Kathy Bantz, mayor of Montpelier said that the community should strive to make it attractive for educated and skilled people to choose it as their home.
"It is critical that we understand what is important to young people and how our community can attract them," Mayor Bantz said.
"We are making a significant effort to engage our young citizens in pursuit of this goal," she added.
Dr. Scot Croner, superintendent of Blackford County Schools, said that he thought it was a "terrific idea" to engage students in community development.
"I told Jacob it was crazy to think it could be done in such a short time," Dr. Croner said, "But it happened and the students did outstanding jobs."
David Bowman, executive director of BCCF, said that the students did great jobs coming up with ideas and presenting those ideas.
"I would like to congratulate the kids," Bowman said. "I spent a lot of Fridays with them. I think of this initiative as youth development program and a way to get the kids involved in the community."