ATHENS – Specialty tea shop Driftwood Dragonfly won the Bright Ideas grant pitch competition, Athens Main Street announced.
Owner Michelle Crawford received the $10,000 grant in an event at the LaunchBox in downtown Athens.
The competition featured pitches from downtown businesses to a panel of judges. Each presented how they would use a $10,000 grant to improve or expand their operations. Eligible applicants were businesses within the Athens Main Street district open for at least one year as of Oct. 31, 2024.
“We had compelling pitches from 10 downtown businesses across retail, restaurant, manufacturing, professional services, and personal services sectors,” said Tere Richardson, Athens Main Street executive director. “Our judges had difficulty selecting the ultimate winner from many great concepts.”
Crawford plans to use the funds to install self-filling stations for custom products and to add a subscription-based service to ship fresh produce and handmade products directly to customers.
Driftwood Dragonfly offers handmade organic healing tea blends, a sizeable loose-leaf apothecary wall, house-made body care products, gifts, crystals, reiki, art, and wellness classes that appeal to various age groups.
The competition was judged by Anna Clem, associate director of Singing River Trail; Tyler Jones, executive director of LaunchBox; and Jennifer McCurdy, executive director of the Northeast Alabama Community College Entrepreneurial Center.
Other participating businesses included AMBL Studios, Athens Alehouse and Cellar, Broken Brush Art Studio, Epiphany Boutique, Limestone Drug, Old Black Bear Brewing, The Southern Throne, Toodlebugs, and Trinity’s.
Main Street Alabama and the Small Business Administration funded the Bright Ideas grant through AL Spark, an initiative of Main Street Alabama, supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
