MBD: Girl Edition 2019

Holiday Marketplace Fuels Girls’ Entrepreneurship

CHATTANOOGA’S ONLY GIRL-POWERED

marketplace featured 60 booths filled with unique merchandise and services. The Girls’ Holiday Marketplace at Girls Preparatory School, Saturday, Dec. 7, offered girls ages 7-17 from across the Chattanooga area the opportunity to sell their products to the public with no booth fee. All the vendors had to do was come up with an idea, make their products, set up their merchandise, and sell their goods.

The professional booth setup, advertising, pre-event workshops, and more were provided by GPS and generous sponsors. Thirty businesses returned from the year before. Products sold included ornaments, wreaths, and holiday decor; original art, jewelry, dog accessories and treats, beauty products, handmade candles and soaps, original family games, and more.

Making Spirits Bright, Poetry for You, The Jeweled Dragon, Art for Paws, and Colors of the Wind were just a handful of businesses making a special appearance in the main gym at GPS. Chick-N-Nooga sold snacks and lunch, plus High Grounds Coffee sold hot beverages including hot cocoa. As an added incentive to arrive early, High Grounds Coffee gave free cups of coffee to the first 100 shoppers! While at the event, scores of shoppers turned out to support local girls and their unique businesses, registered to win gift cards from local merchants and certificates toward GPS Camps and Clinics, let their little ones decorate free cookies, and voted for their favorite student-crafted gingerbread houses.

THANKS TO THE HOLIDAY MARKETPLACE SPONSORS

LEAD BY EXAMPLE SPONSOR

BB&T/SunTrust now Truist

GOLD SPONSORS | EPB Fiber Optics & The Trust Company of Tennessee SILVER SPONSOR | The Bright School IN-KIND DONATIONS | Chattanooga Zoo, Tennessee Aquarium, Panera Bread, Coca-Cola Bottling, The Pottery Place, I Go Tokyo, First Watch, WonderPress & CycleBar. ON-SITE CORPORATE VENDORS | Chick-N-Nooga & High Grounds Coffee

THE GIRLS’ HOLIDAY MARKETPLACE FALLS UNDER THE MBD: GIRL EDITION ENTREPRENEURIAL VENTURES POWERED BY GPS, WHICH INCLUDES THE SUMMER CHATTANOOGA AS TEXT PROGRAM.

CAT Receives Sizeable Grant

Chattanooga As Text: Placemaking Course (CAT) made its debut the summer of 2017. While partnering with missionminded community members, Girls Preparatory School piloted the interdisciplinary, social entrepreneurship program to test curricular and pedagogical innovation and to offer ageappropriate girls in the Chattanooga area the opportunity to dive deeply into a local problem within the context of the geologic, social, and historic setting of the Chattanooga region.

Due to the success of CAT, for the students and teachers who participated, and in an effort to revitalize the program and fund it for three installations, GPS applied for a sizeable grant from The Edward E. Ford Foundation. After a rigorous review process, GPS was awarded the 1:2 matching $50,000 grant from The Edward E. Ford Foundation, with the directive to raise the additional $100,000 by December 31, 2019. The GPS Development team successfully raised the required funds from 14 individuals, foundations, and donoradvised funds. This is the fourth grant GPS has been awarded from The Edward E. Ford Foundation.

The summer 2020 CAT program, to be held June 8-26, was canceled due to COVID-19. Plans to hold the program summer 2021 are still moving forward.