My Hometown Grant by Brooke

My Hometown Grant by Brooke - May 2019 Scholarship Essay

Dade City is a particularly small town with a close-knit community. It’s a hometown where everybody knows everybody, but it makes us more willing to help each other out. Dade City is also full of small businesses, such as unique restaurants and shops. However, a small town isn’t always the best place for small business, as it is often hard to meet the sales needed to stay in business. With a $10,000 grant I would use the money to save the small businesses that make our town unique and special.
Running a small business can be difficult, especially when having to worry about making enough sales to cover each month’s rent. To positively impact my hometown, I would use part of the grant to pay a few months rent for a few small businesses around the town, ones that are really struggling to make ends meet. This would lift a large weight off the owners’ shoulders, as they could spend a few months focusing on bettering their business and building up sales, rather than constantly worrying about having enough to pay the rent of the building.
With the rest of the grant money I would help a few small businesses with advertising funds. Although it’s a small town, it can be hard to get a business name out into the community and advertising can become very expensive. I would use the rest of the grant money to buy each business different forms of advertisements such as online ads, yard signs, billboards and newspaper ads. The goal of this would be to bring more customers to the business by advertising the business within our hometown, but outside as well. By using the grant to pay for advertising, the business can save a decent amount of money and if the ads work, they’ll start bringing in more money; making it a win-win situation.
The small businesses in Dade City are what make this town unique and gives it the character its known for. These businesses provide many jobs, especially to high school students, and they have become a staple of importance within the community. To know that some of my favorite restaurants and shops may be struggling to stay open breaks my heart. Therefore, with a $10,000 grant I would give back directly to my community to make a positive impact. I would use the money to support these small businesses in order that they continue to stay open to serve our community by adding character and uniqueness that each business brings.