You're Invited! 4/22 RSS Spark Lab Pitch Event (Doors Open @ 5:45)

Dear Community Partner,

We’re excited to invite you to join us for the Ridgway Spark Lab Pitch Event, the culminating experience to the Spark Lab program for students in Mr. Craig Spearman’s Personal Finance class!

Before diving into details, I want to emphasize that this is not a typical school event. It runs much like a graduation, with families, educators, and community leaders coming together to celebrate students as they step forward to share their own stories, what they care about, and the ideas they are ready to bring into the world. As a previous Spark Lab participant shared, this event and the community support “showed [them] that [their] ideas have more potential and importance than [they] previously thought.” A prior Pitch Event attendee and community leader described this event simply as, “something that changes lives.” We invite you to come experience for yourself and to be a part of that moment.

Event Details

• Date: Wedensday, April 22

• Time: 6:00-8:00pm (doors open at 5:45, Dinner is Provided)

• Location: The Sherbino: 604 Clinton St, Ridgway, CO 81432

• Agenda:

  • 5:45 – Check in & Doors Open/Find your seat

  • 6:10 – Introduction

  • 6:20 – Student Pitches

  • 7:10 –  Mingling while Homegrown Pathways & judging panel decide on funding (Food available during this time)

  • 7:35 – Awards Ceremony & Close

Spark Lab is a 12-hour, hands-on entrepreneurship and career exploration program facilitated by Homegrown Pathways and the Western Slope Schools Career Collaborative, designed to help youth connect their passions to real-world opportunities through meaningful experiences, relationships, and skill-building.

During the event, students will present their ideas to a panel of local judges who will allocate a portion of the seed funding that Homegrown Pathways is providing. Through its Youth Venture Fund, Homegrown Pathways will be providing $7,000+ in seed funding to support these young innovators to take action on their ideas.

Your presence would mean so much to our students. A central goal of Spark Lab’s design is to empower the ideas of young people, and one of the most powerful ways we can do that is by surrounding them with respected leaders from our community who come to listen to them share their ideas at the Pitch Event.

We hope you’ll join us in celebrating the innovation and purpose-driven thinking of our SS Seniors! Please complete the following form if you are able to attend:

➡️Click Here to Register: https://forms.gle/XxqRPLCFtjzhNad77

All the best,

The Homegrown Pathways Team

P.S. You have permission to share this calendar invite as well as the attached flyer with additional community partners and leaders! Please encourage registration so we can get a good head count for food!