One Spark acts as venue for independent projects

By Alex Holmes | gargoyle@flagler.edu

Photo by Colin Brooks

With One Spark well underway, Flagler students are joining the action to gain awareness and funding for their own cause.

The group, called the One Road campaign, aims to promote bike safety in Duval County. One Spark, a five-day event that takes place in downtown Jacksonville from April 9 to April 13, is the perfect venue for their cause, representing a chance for innovators, creators, artists and entrepreneurs to come together and showcase their ideas.

The One Road campaign seeks to gain exposure, publicity, support and financial donations through One Spark. The votes for the One Road campaign will help them fund their campaign, which aims to spread awareness of the issue of road safety within Duval county and educating the public on how they can make a difference. One Road hopes to reduce the number of accidents within the next two years.

“One Spark is a great opportunity to show people what we’ve been working on and why it is important to join,” Cheyanne Wingo, a student involved in the campaign, said.

Another Flagler student and part of the One Road project team, Alyssa Wickham, says One Spark a good opportunity to connect with the community.

“The event gives us an opportunity to share our community effort with the public and gain as much as support as we can,” Wickham said.

Wickham said One Spark’s huge turnout will increase awareness of their cause.

“This is the ultimate chance to expose our campaign to a huge crowd of people,” Wickham said. “Everyone can relate in some way or form to the issue of unsafe transportation environments within the Jacksonville community.”

It’s not just One Road that is seeking to forward their ventures. One Spark is bringing the community together with  creators in the interactive event.

Any business were able to sign up for the event and any entrants, whether artists, entrepreneurs or innovators, are known as “creators” for the event and their entries called “projects”. All businesses, regardless of size, have a chance to win.

Attendees can vote for their favorite creator projects to help them receive funding. One Spark is a free event, but to vote attendees must pay a small fee, which can be done online or at the actual event. The public is able to donate to causes of their choice.

Voting and donating to independent causes can help the creators gain the funding they need to prosper by following through with their big ideas. Voting is a big part of the event, but even just being there can help the creators network and receive feedback critical to the success of their venture.

This event will not be easy to miss in downtown Jacksonville – the creators will display their projects across 20-square-blocks of venues for most of the day and activities will take place throughout the night. The event will go through Sunday.