JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The five-day One Spark festival wrapped up on Sunday, crowning its winners for the crowdfunding prizes. More than 120,000 votes were cast for a portion of the $200,000 crowdfund.
More than 600 creators participated and competed, and the total estimated attendance for the event was 260,000 people.
There was a lot of excitement in Hemming Plaza because there was a lot of money on the line. Five first-place winners were decided by the public's vote and five winners in the jurored portion.
Nearly $12,000 was awarded to Theatre on a Mission. Sidereal 2014 Takeover brought in $10,000. Farm to Truck won almost $2,500.
"I'm ecstatic right now. It's still all setting in," said Niko Costas, band member of Sidereal 2014 Takeover.
"We are so excited," sith Chelsey Cain, with Theatre on a Mission.
"We are super excited, super excited," said Ellen Hiser and Brett Swearingen, creators for Farm To Truck.
Excited was the word Sunday night for the winners who took home a chunk of money to fund their One Spark idea.
Farm to Truck is a creator with the North Florida School of Special Education, a small school in Arlington for students with intellectual disabilities.
"We're here today we are going to start a food truck that is going to allow our students going through the horticulture training and culinary arts training to get paid jobs out in the community on our truck and bring all of this awesome healthy food that we create and bring it out to everyone in Jacksonville," said Swearingen.
Sidereal 2014 Takeover is a Jacksonville-based band for the last four years. Coastas says they plan on using its money to help spread creativity in Central America.
"We're basically going to be bringing art, crafts supplies as long as -- music supplies, going into local villages for about three to five days in each of the villages and providing a creative outlet for all of those kids to carry with them for the rest of their lives, leaving supplies down there for them to go back and our hope is to kind of do that every year as a part of our tour with our new releases," said Costas.
Theatre on a Mission is a group of local students planning a trip to a Kenyan orphanage for a mission trip.
"We take a theater camp to an orphanage in Bondo, Kenya. We used theater as our vehicle to raise money. We went two years ago and got running water on site for the orphanage, now we're going back to get a school house built. We use the vehicle of theater because it breaks the cultural barriers -- helps raise confidence and self esteem within the students over there and they would never experience something like this otherwise," said Cain.
Here is a full list of the winners:
Innovation:
| 1st | Renovation of Snyder Memorial Church | 2,281 votes | $13,772 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd | Farm to Truck | 1,413 votes | $2,237 |
| 3rd | Fur-ever Home Fund | 1,321 votes | $2,184 |
Science:
| 1st | AquaJax | 2,295 votes | $13,794 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd | St. Augustine Aquarium and Botanical Gardens | 887 votes | $1,467 |
| 3rd | Down to Earth Farm | 709 votes | $1,172 |
Technology:
| 1st | Earthguy.com | 695 | $11,149 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd | Wazinit | 593 | $980 |
| 3rd | LiveSMART and Green Spark Mobile | 525 | $868 |
Art:
| 1st | Theater on a Mission | 1,167 | $11,930 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd | Boneshakered Bigwheel | 1,120 | $1,852 |
| 3rd | #Project Atrium | 1,068 | $1,068 |
Music:
| 1st | Grandpa's Cough Medicine | 792 | $11,309 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd | Cyrious Exposure | 432 | $714 |
| 3rd | A New Sound for the First Coast | 387 | $640 |
A panel of expert jurors also announced a winner in each category that were awarded $10,000. Those winners were also announced Sunday.
- Art: #ProjectAtrium
- Music: Sidereal 2014 Takeover
- Innovation: The Meatrix System Meat Analyzer
- Science: Neuroinitiative - Inside the Neuron