Cafe Huntington

Project Description:
We(Shelly Keeney& Dominique Wong), would like to attend a three day hands on course for advanced cheese-making and business course. This is three day hands on course taught by Peter Dixon, dairy foods consultant and training center for Farmstead cheese-making.  Mr. Dixon is also a dairy foods specialist for Land O Lakes international. The class teaches about milk quality, ingredients, processing, techniques and requirements for aging cheeses, and how to establish a business as a Farmstead or Artisan cheese maker. We will also attend lectures to provide understanding of basic milk and cheese chemistry, the art of aging cheese, and how to design and operate a Cheese Making business.

Project Importance:
Attending this Cheese making/Business course will help us with our goal, which is to establish a small micro-dairy right here in the Tri-State area. We believe in a local sustainable food system. That is, buying foods that are produced as close to home as possible. Our goal is to provide the community with clean, fresher than anything in the supermarket cheese. We also want others in our community to know how there food goes from farm to table.

How Money Will Be Used:
The money will be used to help pay for an Artisan Cheese Making and Business course offered through Ohio State University Extension. It will take place in Circleville, Ohio which is a two hour drive from Huntington. The class fee is 400.00 per person for three days, with a total of 800.00 for the two of us.

3 Month Goal:
The grant money will pay for a Cheese Making/Business course that will be offered on December 6-8 in Circleville, Ohio. We will take what we have learned from the class and apply it to our business venture by research and education. That is, visiting existing dairies and working with our local dairy extension agency on developing a plan of action in the start up of a small Mirco-Dairy Business.

Project Description:
The mission of this project is to produce a quality community newspaper that will in the end be a resource and a tool helping others to succeed. Starting with the homeless population, our sales will either support the lives of individuals that choose to WORK as vendors – well as give them a voice if they choose to be involved in the paper’s content; or support the Cabell-Huntington Coalition for the Homeless in their efforts to solve/end homelessness for their clients.  The paper’s content will also be an honest look at Huntington, promoting/covering fantastic community efforts and events that often go unnoticed, as well as bringing to the public eye problems here that need addressed.   We hope that the attention that comes with our status as part of the media, and the originality of our approach, will be a beacon, rally point, or tool  for other to see their options, their and fellows, and the potential for a better Huntington.

Project Importance:
If this project succeeds (our first issue releases 5 days before this CAFE event, so I will have more to report then), then it will bring both helpful and interesting information to the readers, conforming to the community’s feedback/requests, offer homeless individual’s in the area a voice and an income opportunity, contribute to a major local non-profit/service/charity, and generate a small bit of economic activity that is recirculating within the community. Ideally, it is an ultimate win-win-win-win-win situation.

How Money Will Be Used:
Our printings cost $657 every two weeks. While other grants have been applied for, and beginning with this second issue we will be selling advertising spots, money is still tight and we will need all funds directed towards this effort to produce a consistent project.

3 Month Goal:
So far, though we have applied for others, we have only officially received grant funding from the Marshall University Student Government Association – which has been both very much appreciated as well as crucial in our launching efforts. This grant would go directly to the follow up issue’s production in a continued support for this effort, and is just as crucial. It will assist us immediately in printing/continuing, and thus also buy us more time for the Capstone Research grant, Create Huntington Grant, and one already pledged personal donation to come through for our third issue and beyond.

Dear Committee Members,

Hello it’s April Morrison again And they say third times a charm. I participated in the last two Cafe Huntington’s and I’m a graduate from Marshall University and I have worked in practically every conventional medium available to me and a few not so conventional ones. Oil painting is my passion and after my first proposal last month I became inspired. I admit I had become lax in my work as an artist but after talking about my artwork and working to come up with an adequate proposal for the committee I received the boost I needed to begin a new project.

However, this project will not be cheap. I would like to begin a series of paintings I’m starting with six and I will need paints, canvases, light and heavy mediums, Solvents and framing, along with a new palette and brush cleaning container (the last one sprung a leak). I look forward too participating again and I hope there is still a slot available to me.

Project Description:
Seth Martin and Friends is an Internet video series produced in Huntington, West Virginia. It has been in the planning stages since January of 2009. We have been writing, designing, and organizing our first series. Recently, we released a run of shorts to test our production techniques viewable at http://www.youtube.com/sethmartinfriends. Our desire is to move into full-scale production of an entire season of 12 original half-hour episodes.  Seth Martin and Friends is an absurd sitcom wherein Seth Martin (played, coincidentally, by local actor Seth Martin) is a lovable loser unable to scrape together the resources to move out of his parent’s home. He spends most of his time in the basement trying to figure out what to do with his life with the help of a cadre of puppet pals. The cast of characters includes Trace Cherokee (a struggling Country and Western singer-songwriter), Norman (Seth’s irascible next door neighbor), Super Ultra Man (a superhero), Arthur (a cardinal always looking for a way to make a quick buck), Chappy (a Chapstick), and the ghost of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.  Premises for planned episodes include Seth learning to become a professional wrestler, Seth and the puppets start a band, a supervillain replaces Trace Cherokee with a robot, Seth travels back in time to when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, Seth has a run in with some pontoon boat pirates, Seth’s more successful twin brother drops in for a visit, Seth discovers a genie and is granted three wishes, Seth and the puppets try not to interrupt when Seth’s dad’s boss comes over for dinner, Seth goes on a date, Arthur directs a play telling the story of his life, Seth becomes embroiled in vicious mudslinging when he runs against Chappy for mayor of the basement, and Seth and the puppets investigate a haunted house.

Project Importance:
This project represents a unique comic voice. We have worked hard to create a tone and style that is our own. As a group, we have been working on original comedy since 2005. Seth Martin and Friends represents the ultimate expression of our comedic point of view.

This project also represents an opportunity spot light local actors, musicians, and personalities as guest stars. There will be ample opportunities  for local film makers to become involved in all aspects of the production. Seth Martin and Friends will function as a beehive of creativity that is published on the Internet, via local cable access, local film festivals, and whatever other venues will have us.

How Money Will Be Used:
If awarded, we will use the money from CAFE Huntington to purchase a studio light kit. We have been constructing a studio in a piece of rental property so that we can produce our show. Purchasing a light kit will increase our production value incredibly and make our show capable of looking its best. We will purchase the cans and fixtures as well as expendables like color gels, bulbs, diffusion, and scrims to construct a lighting rig to meet our needs.

3 Month Goal:
Receiving this money will help our project immediately. We are prepared to purchase the lighting kit as soon as we can scrape the money together. Having access to the kit will greatly accelerate our pre-production, and make it easier for us to begin filming sequences for our first episode.

We have constructed the walls that house the main set of our studio. It is painted and decorated. Our puppets are complete and our scripts are written. All that’s left are a few technical details and we’ll be ready to shoot. Having the money to purchase this lighting hardware will be a big step.

Over the course of the next three months, with lights we will be able to likely film, edit, and release our first two complete thirty minute episodes and make serious gains towards more quickly producing the remaining ten.

Owning these lights will help us during these months and future months over the course of years as we work on different film productions.

Project Description:
Our project has already been established, but has limited funds.  We are a street and stage performance band that predominately performs in Huntington. We play to busy crowds, as well as no one at all sometimes. We place all of our earned money into a bank account that we have yet to touch, and it has very little in it, seeing that we make about one dollar per hour of performance.

Project Importance:
We have not moved from the city of Huntington for a few reasons, one of them being that we really like it here.  We feel that this town is just waiting for something within the arts to blow up.  We play street performances all of the city, for virtually nothing, just trying to spread the arts in the name of Huntington.  We were the sole founders for the street performance licenses for the city of Huntington.  This license allows us to combine many different art forms into one singular project and present it to the public.  We would like to found more things like this, and with the proper funding, we should have no problem.

How Money Will Be Used:
We would use a grant for:
Various equipment, (items such as mini belt amplifiers, signage, etc.).
For gas money to neighboring cities/states, as well as for food and resources when outside of town.
3 Month Goal:
Over the next three months, we would hope to expand out to other cities and states, as we already have a few dates booked.  We are waiting to take part in what is called, “gig swapping”.  This is when we bring an out of town band in, pay them gas and some extra, and we expose them to the wonders of Huntington. In exchange for this, they host us in their town, and pay us back the same amount of money, so everyone plays for free, but all expenses are paid, and we get to connect with other cities, and other cities to us.