5 projects to improve Lafayette win funding through 24 Hour Citizen Project

William Taylor Potter | The Daily Advertiser

Five projects to improve Lafayette — ranging from a healthy food delivery service to a plan to reduce festival waste — will receive money from the 24 Hour Citizen Project, an annual Shark Tank-style event where teams pitch community projects to a panel of backers.

"We're an organization that recruits ideas from citizens all year long," said Butch Roussel, the event founder and organizer. "This is an event that's designed for citizens, ordinary people in the community, that have great ideas, but they don't have a platform or an avenue to pursue an idea."

In past years, the project has funded projects such as the YLafayette sign in Parc San Souci, covered bus stops and a musical instrument library. The project has awarded about $80,000 over its four-year lifespan.

The winning teams were Adopt a Storm Drain, Veggies on the Go, GOT IT, Kids N' Media and Greening Festival.

During the event, the teams presented their ideas to the panel of backers, complete with breakdowns of how much money they need and how they plan to use it. But the pitches weren't quite the buttoned-up style of Shark Tank. Each team had walk-up music and ran through a human tunnel to the pitch stage.

After the pitch, the backers were given the opportunity to ask questions. In total, they awarded $15,000 to the winning pitches.

Team Adopt a Storm Drain pitched a citizen-driven water management platform. They propose creating an online mapping app that allows citizens or groups to claim storm drains. It would also allow public entities to send notifications about a resident's adopted drain. The team was awarded $3,000.

The Veggies on the Go team wants to address food insecurity in Lafayette's Northside neighborhoods with a healthy food delivery service.The team was awarded $3,000.

GOT IT, which is a plan to use Saturday school to improve Lafayette's graduation rates and help students become lifelong learners, was awarded $3,500.

Kids N' Media plans to teach Lafayette teens how to use cameras and the skills associated with media production, such as creative writing and digital storytelling. They were awarded $2,500.

Team Greening Festival pitched a plan to make Festival International de Louisiane more environmentally friendly by encouraging vendors to use a plant-based alternative to Styrofoam and subsidizing the cost difference.

Three teams did not receive funding: Connect Acadiana (a web platform for connecting residents to volunteer opportunities), ZydeGeaux Vote (which sought to increase voter turnout among young adults through fun events), and Team McComb Heritage Memorial (which wanted to create a mural recognizing three area musicians).