Campus Connection

UWL seniors Cole Solomon and Shane Adler stared out at a crowed of about 300 people at Pearl Street Brewery, in La Crosse, as they pitched their idea to improve the city. Their project, Tech Trails, would install scannable codes is Hixon Forest so hikers, bikers and skiers could have a map of the forest sent to their phone for easy viewing. “We also want to add a website so people can document and share their experiences,” says Solomon. The pair was joined in the room by other groups of students from their business class. Each group had a unique idea, but needs money to get the projects off the ground. That’s exactly the purpose of a monthly event called ‘La Crosse SOUP,’ an idea brought to La Crosse by Andrew Londre, ‘13, earlier this year. At La Crosse SOUP, attendees pay $5 to get in, enjoy food donated by local companies and vote on ideas to improve the La Crosse community. The most popular idea wins all of the money collected at the door. Previous winners include funding bikes for people with special needs, throwing a surprise wedding for a local couple in a homeless shelter and cleaning up a downtown alley.

How they got there

The idea for students to offer ways to ‘make La Crosse awesome,’ the motto of La Crosse SOUP, came from UWL Associate Management Lecturer Kelly Nowicki, ‘98 & ’02. She attended La Crosse SOUP in July and thought her “students could really benefit from being a part of this and Andrew Londre thought it was a great idea to have them pitch for money.” Nowicki had her class break into teams. They looked for things in the community that bugged them, and came up with solutions to address those concerns. After a month and a half of planning, the 11 groups of UWL students were prepared to offer ideas. However, only four groups, selected by Londre and other community leaders, would actually pitch to the crowd. “Everyone hated not knowing if you were pitching,” says Adler. “It definitely brought us out of our comfort zone and made us be ready to just get up there and do it.” In the end, the crowd picked Tech Trails to receive the money. “We kept our pitch short and sweet,” says Solomon. “It was easy to be confident knowing we had an idea we believed in.” “This means we’re getting hands-on experience and basically we have a little business right now,” says Adler. “We are living the entrepreneurial dream from students.”

But there’s more

Londre was inspired by all of the pitches from the UWL students and “determined to get them funded.” Starting Saturday, Nov. 7, a Kickstarter campaign is launching to raise $10,000 for the 10 groups that weren’t selected. Kickstarter is an online crowd-funding website. If that money is raised by Jan. 1, each group will get $1,000 toward its projects. The projects include: • Install an ice skating rink at Riverside Park. • Provide new clothes for homeless people to wear to job interviews. • Install wayfind signage and signs asking people not to litter at Pettibone Park. • Create a mural downtown that also serves as a wayfinding map of lesser-known unique downtown. • Purchase giant games (giant chess pieces, giant jenga, etc) for city Parks and Recreation Department. • Install "Smart" Garbage/Recycle cans downtown that are solar powered and compact trash and recyclables. • Create cancer survivor shirts to be sold in La Crosse to show that La Crosse Cares; profits of sales will go to purchase exercise equipment for the YMCA cancer recovery center. • Install "Little Free Libraries" at local grocery stores. • Expand access to disk golf in local elementary schools. • Create a large Thanksgiving dinner on UWL's campus. “It would be fantastic if all pitches would come to fruition,” says Nowicki. “This is a great learning opportunity for the students and a great opportunity to make a difference in the community.”