I think we need a little hope, Hope Wine that is, after the Bitterness…

I recently attended the Launchtown event at John Carroll. (Launchtown is a business plan competition). The event had three (keynote) speakers: Eileen Saffran founder of The Gathering Place (a caring community for those touched by cancer), Jake Kloberdanz co-founder and CEO of Hope Wine, and John Osher the local legend behind the SpinPop, SpinBrush, etc.

Hope Wine is a for-profit business but they have an interesting model – if you buy a bottle of Hope Chardonnay half of the profits go to breast cancer research, a bottle of Merlot half goes to AIDS, a bottle of Cabaret Sauvignon half goes to autism. Hope also works with non-profits, like The Gathering Place – the non-profit gets a commission off the sale of wine.

We interviewed Jake last week (but we are pretty far behind with editing right now - so it will be at least a few weeks before the interview is posted). During the interview, there was something about him that I could not put my finger on – I even said it during the interview. However, a couple of days later during the interview with John Osher, while talking about the “believe in me” quality of certain entrepreneurs – he mentioned Jake’s presentation at John Carroll. That was it. “Believe in me!” Jake is a 24 year old, hard charging entrepreneur with a social conscious. He also indicated this social conscious is prevalent in his generation…

I emailed Jake about this post so hopefully he will join in and give a more in-depth explanation of “cause products” (bottle of wine) and “cause brands” (like Hope Wine) and maybe we can help Jake get Hope Wine into NEO. Also, I will be sitting down with Eileen tomorrow to learn her story about social entrepreneurship. The interviews with Jake, John and Eileen will be available in a few weeks…

Rick

Rarely do I laugh out loud, while reading a blog post. This afternoon, there I was, minding my own business {pretty much}, and lo and behold,a friend of mine, and a B5 blogger dude, posted this article. It is a franchise blog..I know, I am kinda focused, but this story is a hoot. Good for a Friday.
Enjoy It!
Click My Name for the story…
Joel Libava

I’m teaching the fashion/fiber/costuming portion of Young Audiences of NE Ohio’s ArtWork’s program this summer in University Circle. Here’s more about the program, including a link to the apprentice application. Artists as well as apprentices are paid, making this the ideal summer “job” for students with an interest in the arts. From their site:

Held for six weeks over the summer, ArtWorks provides apprentices with:

1. Hands-on skills in a chosen art discipline
2. Valuable job training that will benefit any career
3. Resources for navigating the college admissions and financial aid processes
4. Opportunities to showcase finished work in public performances and exhibits
5. Access to representatives from the business, cultural, and civic communities who will share inspirational stories of how the arts have made a difference in their professional and personal lives

Apprentice applications are due 3 April, so if you know a 9th, 10th or 11th grader who might be interested, send them this link asap! (Graduating seniors are ineligible).

If you’re in University Circle this summer and spot the tents, stop by and check out what’s going on. There will be public presentations of the students’ final projects at the end — everything from art shows to theatre to what I suspect will be a very Project Runway event with my apprentices!

But have heard the same thing:

Hey, if you’re looking for something fun and different to do in Cleveland, you should really check out karaoke at Bo Loong on St. Clair Avenue near East 40th. Remember the scene at the Chinese karaoke bar with Bill Murray in the movie Lost In Translation? It’s kinda like that…

jeremy borger [blog] » Blog Archive » Asians + karaoke = Awesomeness