The Longwood Center for the Visual Arts (LCVA) was packed with friends and families, all sharing conversations over soup and bread while sipping on drinks from the cash bar for the Farmville Downtown SOUP event. People from all over the community engaged in light conversations while waiting to hear what the five proposals had to offer. Meanwhile, those in attendance could enjoy artwork from children of all grades, who simply expressed themselves through portraits, designs or just ideas the fancied them at the time. The SOUP event was held on Friday, which was swarming with Farmville residents to participate and support family and friends on their proposals.
The SOUP event gave residents of the Farmville community the ability to gather around and vote on which proposals they felt would best benefit Farmville. The five proposals presented include, “READ Farmville,” “Project Farmville Bistro,” “Bicycle Parking,” “Another ‘Art Attack,’ ” and “LU/ HSC School Spirit Paw Project.” Although, the five proposals were very well presented and well thought-out only three out of the five received grants to bring their projects to life.
The first place winner of the SOUP event was “Bicycle Parking” presented by Charles Repp. The goal for this proposal is to place ten or more bicycle racks around the downtown area, which can encourage people to take part in the environmental friendly activity. The bicycle racks can be easily placed on the existing parking meters and parking one’s bicycle in the rack will be completely free.
Being a resident of the Farmville area since the summer of 2015 Repp stated, “It feels great to have gotten a grant for this proposal and feels very affirming to know that lots of other people in the community share the same vision for downtown Farmville.”
Repp was granted $2,500 to put toward this proposal and to make these bicycle racks a reality in downtown.
Organizer of the event, Joseph Gills who is a resident of Farmville and a 2015 Longwood alumni stated, “The bike proposal will really benefit downtown Farmville. I think people really enjoy biking and the idea corresponds with the High Bridge Trail.”
The second place winner was “Project Farmville Bistro” presented by Kerry Mossler another Longwood alumni and who has lived in Farmville for over 20 years. The project was granted $1,500. Mossler was “very happy to be part of the winning proposals.”
The inspiration of “Project Farmville Bistro” came from a trip to visit her daughter in her Brooklyn neighborhood.
The proposal will bring even more life to Farmville by providing chairs and tables for all to enjoy; simply giving the small town a little bit more charm. Mossler believes this project can be completed before the vice presidential debate in October and she plans to get in contact with Greenfront Furniture in order to purchase the bistro tables and chairs locally.
Gills stated, “I’ve heard more people say that they want more sitting areas downtown, and it’s always nice in the spring and fall to go outside and sit.”
Lastly, “READ Farmville,” a proposal presented by Juanita Giles whose goal was “to inspire people of all ages to read more by bringing a portable book cart to the community” took third place.
“READ Farmville” was granted $1,000 to make this proposal a reality.
Gills stated, “ ‘READ Farmville’ is an awesome project, and I think it’s really going to benefit our community to have books available for people to enjoy while they’re out and about.”
The SOUP event was a great way to bring the community together to hand pick proposals that will benefit the downtown area. All three proposals that were selected will be beneficial to businesses, residents and all in the community in its own unique way. The proposals that were not selected in this SOUP event can be entered in the future.