It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood for the amazing crew of community farmers—and budding young entrepreneurs—over at Hope Blooms.
The community project, started by North End Community Health's Jessie Jollymore in 2008, has turned an abandoned chunk of land into a flourishing community garden and greenhouse over the last few years. It's engaged 40-plus youth and their families to dig in, get dirty and grow their own healthy food, and kick-started an incredibly popular line of hand-made salad dressings also called Hope Blooms. In short, it is awesome.
The inspired, and inspiring, group recently made a trip to the big city to pitch their ideas and their numbers to CBC's Dragons' Den and the episode airs tonight! According to the clips that are floating around the web they killed it with a clear and confident presentation and even moved a few of the panel of judges to tears. Watch the trailer for here, and be sure to have the kleenex handy. Isn't it nice to see that those normally cranky Dragons have souls?
For those of you who'll be cheering on Hope Blooms from the comfort of your own sofa, the episode airs at 8pm, but the Halifax North Memorial Library and North End Community Health Centre are hosting a community celebration that tops any loveseat, chesterfield or Lazy Boy you might own. Starting at 7pm there'll be local snacks and entertainment at the library (2285 Gottingen), plus the 43-piece Hope Blooms team will have the red carpet rolled out for them (rightfully). Then at 8pm you can join them in watching Dragons' Den on the big screen and maybe stock up on Hope Blooms' newest dressing, Fire Roasted Oregano. Celebratory salads!
Congrats from the Coast, Hope Blooms! We're rooting for you.
UPDATE:
And our new heros, Hope Blooms, totally won over the Dragons and got FOUR TIMES what they asked for. If you haven't watched the pitch already, you need to. If you have, watch it again here...and again, like I keep doing.