Grow Wabash County Receives $21,000 Don Wood Grant

WABASH, IN – The Don Wood Foundation (formerly the 80/20 Foundation Trust) has awarded $21,000 in grant funding to Grow Wabash County to expand upon its efforts with the Wabash County High School Entrepreneurship Collaborative.

The majority of the funding received from the Don Wood Foundation will be used to cover the costs of the 2022 INnovate Wabash County student pitch competition, slated for April 2022, including cash awards for the top student teams to further their education and/or their business ventures.

Additional funds from the Foundation will also be used to equip every Wabash County high school with a complete library of books from the Dave Ramsey EntreLeadership collection.

“We are thrilled that the team at the Don Wood Foundation shares our passion and vision in supporting high school entrepreneurs in Wabash County,” said Keith Gillenwater, president and CEO of Grow Wabash County.  “The Don Wood Foundation is building a legacy of partnering with all of the communities of Northeast Indiana to propel us forward, and we are grateful for their continued support of Grow Wabash County and our young entrepreneurs.”

The Wabash County High School Entrepreneurship Collaborative is the product of Grow Wabash County’s partnership with all five Wabash County high schools to create a network of resources to promote entrepreneurship in the classroom.

In 2020, Grow Wabash County aided the schools in launching the CO.STARTERS Generator curriculum to provide streamlined and in-depth instruction for students to develop and pitch their own business ideas. Plans are also in place for the 2021-2022 academic year to launch northeast Indiana’s first chapter of the StartED Up Foundation to encourage students to challenge themselves in their business skills and connect with their entrepreneurial peers.

The capstone of this curriculum is the INnovate Wabash County student pitch competition where students show what they have learned by presenting a business pitch a “shark-tank” panel of judges.