MWCC's Weekly e-newsletter

Friday, June 10, 2005

MOUNT WACHUSETT COMMUNITY COLLEGE ANNOUNCES
1ST ANNUAL BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION

By Kimberly B. Caisse

As part of the Mount Wachusett Community College Entrepreneurial Resource Center’s mission to stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit in North Central Massachusetts, it is launching its first annual Business Plan Competition today. Qualified entrants must commit to starting or growing a business or nonprofit organization within the college’s service area.

The competition gives the region’s innovators—in the business and community involvement sectors—the opportunity to submit business plans that will vie for up to $13,000 in cash as well as in-kind prizes. Three semi-finalists and a single finalist will be chosen in four categories: startup and growing businesses, nonprofits, community involvement and Fitchburg “Main Streets” businesses. The semi-finalists will compete for the finalist awards. A grand-prize winner will be selected from the four finalists.

“Innovation in the for-profit and nonprofit areas is vital for the region’s communities to be great places to work and live,” said MWCC President Daniel M. Asquino. “The college is committed to helping both flourish by spearheading this annual business plan competition. The number of sponsors shows that many area businesses and organizations share our commitment.”

The competition’s premier sponsors are Unitil Corp. of Fitchburg and Community Builders, a partnership between the United Way of North Central Massachusetts and MWCC to promote volunteerism by inspiring, informing and educating the community. The startup sponsor is Clinton business attorney Jean D. Sifleet. Incubating sponsors are TD Banknorth Massachusetts, Nashoba Valley Chamber of Commerce, Wachusett Chamber of Commerce, Greater Gardner Chamber of Commerce, MWCC’s Entrepreneurial Resource Center, Institute for Nonprofit Development at MWCC, Rose and Marble Design of Ayer, Parkerhill Technology Group of Windham, N.H., Image Software Services of Devens and Sentinel & Enterprise of Fitchburg. Supporting sponsors are Fidelity Bank of Fitchburg, Twin Cities Community Action Committee, Fitchburg State College, Enterprise Bank & Trust of Lowell, City of Fitchburg, American Express Financial, Vernon Co. in Littleton and Harvard attorney Sheila C. Harrington. Judges and sponsorships are still being accepted.

Competition details

Executive summaries are due Friday, July 29, and final business plans are due Monday, Aug. 29. Semi-finalists will be announced Thursday, Oct. 13. Public presentation of the grand-prize and four finalists’ plans will be held Thursday, Oct. 27. Meanwhile, the ERC will run a business plan writing workshop from Wednesday, June 15 to Wednesday, Aug. 24 from 6 to 9 p.m. at MWCC’s Devens campus. (Registration forms are available online at www.mwcc.edu/LLL/entrepreneur.html.)

Semi-finalist (three selected in each category):
• Community involvement category semi-finalists each receive a Community Builders Fellowship of $5,000.
• Fitchburg “Main Streets” category semi-finalists each receive a grant of $3,000.
• Startups and growing businesses category
• Nonprofits category

Finalist prizes (awarded in each of the four categories): $2,000 in cash, plus in-kind business services

Grand-prize: an additional $4,000 in cash, plus in-kind business services

An additional prize of $2,000 in cash will be awarded to the business plan with the best job-creation strategy.

MWCC’s service area: Ashburnham, Ayer, Ashby, Athol, Barre, Clinton, Fitchburg, Gardner, Groton, Hardwick, Harvard, Hubbardston, Lancaster, Leominster, Lunenburg, Oakham, Orange, Pepperell, Petersham, Phillipston, Princeton, Royalston, Rutland, Shirley, Sterling, Townsend, Templeton, Westminster and Winchendon.

For more information, contact Entrepreneurial Resource Center Director Lisa Derby Oden at (978) 630-9548 or loden@mwcc.mass.edu.

Mount Wachusett Community College, in part through a $25,000 grant from The Coleman Foundation and U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship awarded in August 2004, started the Entrepreneurial Resource Center to develop entrepreneurship/small business education programs and to serve pre-startup, new and existing small businesses in North Central Massachusetts. The center is located at MWCC’s Devens campus, 100 Jackson Road.

Upcoming Campus Events:

• Mount Wachusett Community College will host the 12th annual Relay for Life from Friday, June 10 at 6 p.m. to Saturday, June 11 at 6 p.m. The 2004 Relay raised $758,000, the highest amount of the other 156 relays in New England. This year’s goal is to raise $800,000. The Gardner Relay has raised over $5 million dollars since its inception 11 years ago. Other benchmarks reached at the 2004 Relay include having 733 survivors walk the track, a number unheard of at any of the other relays, and being ranked No. 11 nationwide in funds raised (out of 4,200 relays).

• MWCC students, faculty and staff have been invited to attend a free community educational forum, “Public Safety and Civil Rights in a Post 9/11 Society,” sponsored by the Fitchburg Human Rights Commission and Three Pyramids of Fitchburg on Tuesday, June 14 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Fitchburg State College’s Hammond Building. Representatives of the Fitchburg Police Department, the Worcester Co. Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Fitchburg Fire Department–Citizen Corp. Council, the Fitchburg Human Rights Commission and the North Central Massachusetts Minority Coalition will participate in a panel discussion on public safety and civil rights. For more information, contact the Fitchburg Civil Rights Commission at (978) 345-9565.

• More than 50 students are expected to receive GED diplomas at MWCC’s annual GED graduation ceremony Saturday, June 18 at 10 a.m. at the Gardner campus. State GED Chief Examiner Tom Mechem will give the keynote address. Dawn Green, who took GED prep classes at MWCC’s Adult Basic Education Center in Gardner, and Ryan Schneider, who took classes at the college’s Fitchburg center, will receive a President’s Award. The award, founded by MWCC President Daniel M. Asquino, provides a voucher good for two MWCC courses as well as the books needed to take the classes. For more information about MWCC’s GED prep classes, contact Angela Lunn-Marcustre at (978) 630-9173.

• Registrations are being excepted for MWCC’s summer programs for kids and teens, including basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, field hockey, tennis, fitness, “fun in the sun,” computers, science and math, “girl power,” and art. Multiple-day classes will take place during July and August. An extended day program at the MWCC Fitness & Wellness Center is available to full-day participants. For more details, visit http://www.mwcc.edu/LLL/kids.html. For a sports program registration packet, call (978) 630-9212. For an enrichment program registration packet, call enrollment services at (978) 630-9238.

	"Two Sisters and a Dog," a painting by Heidi D'Entremont, on display in the East Wing Gallery.

• “Between Two Worlds,” an art exhibit of recent oil paintings by Westminster artist Heidi D’Entremont, will run through Friday, July 1 in the East Wing Gallery of the Raymond M. Fontaine Fine Arts Center. Gallery hours are from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday. The exhibit is free and open to the public. For more information, call (978) 632-6600.

• Phi Theta Kappa is taking orders for a graduation DVD. The DVD cost $15. The price includes shipping and handling. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Gardner Community Action Committee. If interested, please contact Professor Sheila Murphy at smurphy@mwcc.mass.edu.

Lea Ann Erickson
Assistant Vice President of Public Affairs
Mount Wachusett Community College
Phone: (978) 630-9322 Fax: (978) 630-9561
cell: (508) 517-5202
lerickson@mwcc.mass.edu

To receive weekly updates via e-mail, subscribe to our listserv by sending an email to: publications-on@listserv.mwcc.edu.

top of page